The Art of War
by Apex Primus
Summary: Something is out there; Something is coming. It threatens my people, and I will do anything to defend them. Yet, they did not accept my methods and I was exiled. It matters not, I do not need their permission to fight for them. I will return, and this new galaxy will aid me in my plans. I will teach them of our foe, and they will learn to face it. They will learn: I. Am. Thrawn.
1. First Contact

**Greetings, readers of the Fanfiction archives.**

 **I welcome you to this one-shot/potentially-first chapter of a crossover story.**

 **Of course, if it were to become the latter, I would need your support.**

 **Now, this story is based on the short story "Mist Encounters" by Timothy Zahn (You can download a pdf of it online for free)**

 **So, that means:**

 **All rights reserved and copyrighted by EA and Bioware for Mass Effect content**

 **All rights reserved and copyrighted by Lucasfilm for Star Wars content**

 **All rights reserved and copyrighted by Timothy Zahn for his magnificent character and his story**

* * *

 _Journal Entry 19_

 _1248 GS_

 _Our pursuit of the pirate vessel "Vermin Pride" has brought us to a mostly uncharted system at the edge of the Terminus Systems. Evidence suggests that the pirates have a hidden base on an uncharted world—or, at the very least, a safe haven—that they believe will shelter them. However, we intercepted them before they could enter the planet's atmosphere. Post-engagement reports suggested we damaged their engines and caused a rupture in their FTL-drive._

 _Unfortunately, we could not capture the ship as it dived down to the planet and left a minefield behind them. We suffered minimal damage to our shields, but backed off before they fell. Two fighters gave further chase, but the pirates got off a lucky shot on one of them before our other fighter shot down its other engine. We called off our remaining pilot, though, and had him take an aerial survey of the area._

 _A ground force is being mobilized at the moment by Officer Jinduil Baeriph with Asari Commando support reinforcing it. Salvage teams have also been prepped to scavenge what we can from the fighter crash site. Hopefully, we won't have to deal with anything troublesome here and we can just head back to Thessia._

 _Lieutenant Shiala, signing off._

* * *

The shuttle shook and quaked as it smoothly swerved around the floating mines which the pirate vessel had haphazardly dumped out on their retreat. The hum of the engines filled the interior of the small vessel with a tranquil sound. However, it clashed with the tense atmosphere that surrounded the soldiers whom eagerly awaited the mission ahead. Minutes ticked by, and soon a half-hour mark was closing in; but just as one of the Asari soldiers prepared to speak, the shuttle shook roughly.

"Beginning atmospheric entry," the shuttle pilot's voice echoed from the cockpit. "Prepare for landing."

"Negative on that," a new voice crackled through the communications line on the pilot's console. "Sending new landing coordinates, our fighter just found something you need to secure."

Confusion flared amongst the troops whom looked to each other, but none dared to break the silence; both in fear of reprimanding and of the spotlight that would shine on them. So, they stood and they stayed still, making no sound as they patiently waited to land. Soon enough, the patience of the troops was rewarded with the warm air of the equatorial forest that the pirate vessel had crashed at. They marched out in unison, their formations without flaw until each of the soldiers stopped to stare at what they had come to secure.

Sitting in a small clearing was a hut of sorts, about the size of one of their shuttles. It appeared to have been constructed from local materials: wood, mud, and clay with a few other things that none of the soldiers could exactly place. By it sat two metal columns glowing with various, exposed lights as well as a primitive computer screen of sorts.

"What is that?"

"Hell if I know."

"Pirate's hidey-hole?"

"Doubt it, they couldn't have made one this quickly."

"Of course they couldn't have, I'm talking about their getaway place- er, a safe haven?"

"Quiet!" an authoritative voice rang out, and the Asari troops stiffened as they returned to their positions in their formation.

A single Asari then marched before them in armor differing from their own, its color scheme and ornaments matching that of an officer.

"All units, begin combing the forest for any signs of the pirates," Officer Jinduil Baeriph ordered and swung an arm out to point her finger towards the brush. "Do not make contact, call for reinforcements before engaging."

The troops were off them, speaking in hushed whispers as they drew farther away from their commanding officer. The mentioned Asari, though, turned her attention away from the soldiers who she commanded as soon as they entered the forest at the edges of the clearing. Her eyes came to rest on the small hut that sat in the secured perimeter that the landed Asari shuttles had created. Several soldiers were poking around it, under orders to investigate the dwelling, and after a while, one of them came to her with a list written up on their omni-tool.

"Report," she commanded and the soldier obeyed.

"The dwelling is composed of a number of local materials, most of it easy to make. However, the materials we found inside of the dwelling are... they are of unknown origins, ma'am."

"Say that again, soldier? Unknown origins?"

"Yes, ma'am," the Asari affirmed with a slight shake to her voice. "We've never seen anything like them before, or the metal blocks over there."

She gestured at the glowing towers with their exposed lights and primitive screens.

"Our observations suggest the design is a mix of primitive and advanced tech, sir. Some kind of stylized architecture."

"But what does it do?"

"Er... we believe they are power generators as they are hooked up to a number of devices in the dwelling."

Just before Officer Baeriph could respond to the report, however, her omni-tools communicator blinked. A pinging noise emitted from it and she raised up his arm as the orange glow of the holographic display flared to life.

"This is Officer Baeriph, report."

"Salvage team to Officer Baeriph, you need to see this, ma'am."

* * *

The trek to the crash site of their downed fighter was, thankfully, short. Officer Baeriph and her bodyguards pushed their way past low-hanging branches and bushes, swatting away bugs where ever they landed on their exposed skin.

"Alright, what am I looking at?"

The salvage team glanced at her, and then at themselves before moving to the body of the pilot. The drag marks behind him suggested he had been pulled from the wreckage, but the hesitant way in which they touched the flight-suit clad figure suggested something else to the officer.

"We arrived at the crash site after you landed at the dwelling, but we found the pilot's body dragged out into the open."

With her thoughts confirmed, the officer raised a hand to massage her forehead. A sigh left her and became a growl as she angrily pondered on the possibility of these pirates defiling an Asari's corpse.

"And? Did the pirate's take anything?"

The salvage team shared glances once more before their leader answered him, "Sir... we do not believe that these were pirates."

She then pulled the helmet from the body, revealing blades of grass, weeds, and berries inside. No body filled the pilot's jumpsuit, and instead it was stuffed with the local flora.

"Wh-what?"

"I think we're dealing with primitives, sir. Never-before contacted primitives, at that."

"Primitives who stole the pilot's survival pack which includes their pistol and grenades"

Baeriph looked between the two of them and then grit her teeth. It was one thing to make first contact with a species, but it was a completely different scenario if they had ransacked their own tech. The danger they now posed the to the Asari forces and themselves meant that any negotiations or second-contact meetings would be difficult, at best.

"Alright, transport the uniform back to the camp. I want it studied."

* * *

It was nighttime when Baeriph found herself with the researchers that the _Unbending Will_ had sent down. They scurried about, swarming around the small hut and the grass and berry filled jumpsuit. Their omni-tools flashed incessantly as they documented every image from every angle and their voices never stopped filling the air as they debated on possible theories.

A troop perimeter had been established by the time they had returned to the encampment, though, per Baeriph's orders. Patrols marched back and forth, scanning the forest beyond the clearing with their eyes.

"Any sign of the pilot's body?"

Officer Baeriph kept her chin up and eyes staring down past her nose at the two scouts before her.

"No, ma'am; but we did find the survival pack. Looked like the natives ripped it open and rummaged through it," the first scout reported.

The other scout, though, then spoke up, "It's entirely possible that they simply tore the thing apart and just abandoned the contents instead of keeping them."

The officer lifted a blue hand to cup her chin and she narrowed her eyes while thinking.

"Perhaps, but until we actually find that gun I want everyone thinking that it's pointing at u-"

Before Officer Baeriph could finish her sentence, a flash doused her figure in white briefly before it turned into a dark, ethereal blue and a warping noise similar to a biotic explosion filled the air.

"Cover!"

Immediately, she was on the ground, curling up with hands over her head as dirt, pebbles, and grass rained from the sky. A few seconds passed by and no further explosions rang out. Daring to open her eyes, Officer Baeriph looked out and spotted the researchers on the ground, all of them attempting to squeeze themselves further into the ground.

Cautiously, she rose to get up, only for another explosion to ring out, directly behind her. She let out a short cry, but stifled it as the Asari pulled herself back into a fetal position and pushed against the grass-sown dirt.

"What was that!" she shouted out after a moment of silence had passed.

 _Couldn't have been grenades, to small of an explosive radius._

Her eyes scanned over the scorched soil where the explosions had come from as she waited for an inevitable third explosion. Yet, none came, and after a while, one of her soldiers—Nymla was her name—crawled over to her with a report, "All perimeter patrols checking in, they're performing a complete sweep of the area."

"How far out?"

"About twenty meters, but so far they haven't found anything. Whoever our attackers were, they're gone now."

Officer Baeriph grit her teeth as a scowl formed on her face. The soldier, Nymla, stretched out a hand as she rose and her superior took it, rising up onto her own legs while growling silently.

"Considering that there were no reported signs of anyone out there before, the fact that they don't see anything now is not comforting."

Nymla looked about, skimming her eyes over the brush and the forest beyond it as a hazy white veil began to shroud it all.

"It's getting misty out there, that's going to be trouble."

Her superior officer nodded in agreement, but then gave an aggressive quip a second after, "Our natives don't seem to have any trouble with it."

The soldier nodded in agreement this time, but spoke no words as she awaited orders. Baeriph looked to the researchers that had picked themselves off the ground, a few of them quivering with fright. The Asari officer assumed they were new to the team, seeing as they appeared to be in their maiden stages still. Her eyes moved back to the scorched ground where the explosions had gone off and she frowned deeply.

"What were those, anyways? They couldn't have been simple grenades."

"You know; it might have been the pilot's jumpsuit's Element Zero batteries. If you unclamped the safety plating, then it would make one hell of grenade."

"So then our natives didn't just take the survival pack."

"Apparently, ma'am, but I doubt they had a trigger on those batteries. They most likely waited for them to deteriorate before lobbing them at us."

Baeriph raised her hand to her chin once more, caressing it while she mused on the soldier's suggested possibility. If Nymla's theory was true, then these natives were either smart or they were the pirates they had been chasing. However, in the case of the former, the fact that they could calculate the deterioration rate of an Eezo battery and not build a proper civilization contradicted itself. In the case of the latter, why would the pirates even loot the Eezo batteries? They should have had more than enough supplies on their ship, that is, if it didn't crash hard.

After a minute more of thinking, Officer Baeriph finally let go of her and looked to the soldier next to her.

"Nymla, you said that they probably threw the batteries?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Hm... I'll order a wing of fighters to make a flyover of the area, maybe we can catch them before they flee to far."

A few minutes later, Baeriph deactivated her omni-tool and began walking towards the nearest scorch mark on the clearing's floor.

Since her troops hadn't spotted anyone near the encampment, then that must have meant that the batteries were lobbed via a catapult or propelling equipment of some kind. However...

The Asari's eyes turned up to the large roll of canvas set up over them, observing it lift and fall with the breeze. Any launched projectiles would have struck the canopy before hitting the ground, therefore, her own theory was invalid. Still, how did they manage such a surprise attack on them?

Suddenly, movement caught the blue alien's eye and she waved a hand, biotics flaring to life around it. Yet, a sound that was a mix between a sigh and a growl fled her mouth as she glared at the small, nocturnal creature that scurried around.

"Nymla!"

The soldier turned at the sound of her summons and she marched over to her superior officer, stiffening when she came within range of her. Baeriph wouldn't lie that she'd grown at least marginally fond of the Asari soldier's quick thinking. Perhaps she'd suggest a promotion to the matriarch for her.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Get anyone not on patrol or surveillance to set up some floodlights from the shuttles. I want this entire clearing _and_ the rim of the forest lit up; hopefully we can cut through some of this fog too."

"Very well, ma'am," the younger soldier acknowledged and twisted a foot to swivel around, but stopped short to stiffen up again. "Will there be anything else, ma'am?"

"No, soldier... actually, yes, have the techies fine-tune the surveillance equipment. If our natives or pirates want to lob anymore batteries at us, then let's at least know that there's going to be explosions."

Nymla opened her mouth to speak, but the moment she began talking the reverberating roar of two Asari fighter ships drowned out her voice. Officer Baeriph briefly followed them as they flew overhead and moved out over the forest canopy, but then returned her attention to the younger soldier before her.

"What was that?"

"Excuse me, ma'am. I said, that if we fine-tune the surveillance equipment anymore, we'll probably start picking up the avian wildlife around here; we'll get pings all night long."

Grumble vibrated Baeriph's throat as she nodded in agreement begrudgingly.

"Very well, forego the fine-tuning, but I want the light-"

She was stopped short as a flash of bright yellow, red, and orange lit up the forest directly ahead of them. Their heads turned to the explosion of one of the Asari fighters and the superior officer's mouth dropped in disbelief. The light of the fireball lessened only slightly, but before the roar of the explosion could roll over the encampment, Baeriph had already started shouting into her omni-tool, "Salvage team! To the shuttles!"

* * *

"And you have yet to determine the cause of the fighter's crash?"

"No, ma'am."

"What of the pilot's body? Did these natives or pirates defile it again?"

Officer Baeriph shook her head and continued to bow it.

"No, ma'am. This time we chased them off before they could take the body, but they did manage to ransack the survival pack again. They took the pistol, grenades, and the jumpsuit's Element Zero batteries."

The matriarch's eyes narrowed and Baeriph felt the annoyance her superior emitted rolling over her. The ends of her head's crests tingled, as if a soft breeze had tickled them, but it was not a pleasant feeling. Fright and fear made her stomach churn as she waited for a reprimand or something close enough to one.

All around her, the Asari troops watched; but they stayed a great distance away. Most pretended not to be viewing the scene, but Baeriph knew that they were glancing and taking quick looks while listening. The floodlights that had been brought out fully illuminated their numbers, as well as the multitude of nocturnal insects and avian animals that played in the artificial light.

"You are the commanding officer on the scene, Jinduil Baeriph. I leave the future events of this operation up to you, as well as the consequences that will come from it," she spoke pleasantly with a solemn tone, yet the coolness of her voice only spurred the anxiety and paranoia inside of the officer to spike. "But, in my opinion, this entire scenario has gone far beyond a small territory dispute with primitive natives. Are you certain that the pirates are not involved in any way?"

"No, ma'am," Officer Baeriph answered firmly and looked up to meet the hologram's eyes. "Our ground teams not committed to the encampment's security have already captured the crashed pirate vessel... there were few survivors, but their shipments were intact."

The soft sound of the matriarch inhaling breathed through the communications line with a slight, static undertone. However, the hint of pleasure in it gave the officer hope that her superior was impressed.

"Good, at least our original objective is complete. Still, though, first contact with these unknown natives should be dealt with before we return with a delegation."

"Yes, ma'am."

Officer Baeriph waited for the matriarch to end the call so she might relax, but after a minute had passed, that hope died. Curious, the Asari looked up and saw the pondering face of the matriarch that sat aboard the bridge of the _Unbending Will_.

"Baeriph?"

"Y-Yes, ma'am?"

"The pilots' jumpsuits, did you check if their omni-tools were still intact?"

"...N-No, ma'am, I don't believe we-"

"Do it. Now."

Within seconds, Baeriph had the researchers back at the table with the uniforms on it. The one filled with grass and berries was combed over while the one stripped from the deceased pilot was as well. The superior officer waited for a time, scrunching her noise at the smell that the berries in the first jumpsuit gave off, but her patience was rewarded when the researchers approached her and the hologram projector.

"Ma'am, the first jumpsuit was missing its omni-tool, but the second still had its own."

What had been a paranoid idea that had appeared moments ago was now a panicking thought as the officer's eyes widened.

"Clever creatures," the matriarch's voice suddenly rang out and Officer Baeriph turned to look at her. "They've been listening on our conversations this whole time."

"We should cut that line, immediately, ma'am."

"It is already done, Officer Baeriph."

She nodded back, but bit her tongue before she could speak further. The solemn mask that the matriarch wore was cracking with the slightest hints of aggravation. Hopefully, she could end the call before she was given a serious reprimanding. The best idea she could come up with, though, was suggesting immediate action.

"I'll scramble hunting parties; these natives are probably still nearby."

"No, Officer, I'd rather you stay put."

She inhaled sharply, but silently, bending her back into a slight curve as she took on a stiffer stance out of fright.

"I'll be sending down some of my commandos in the morning, but until then, ensure that you survive. Matriarch Benezia, out."

* * *

That night, they had, had five casualties.

Two of them had been killed by their unseen foe, killed at separate times, but both murdered with the grenades stolen from the survival packs. Their heads down to their chests had been blown open by the concussion grenades, and their bodies were discovered seconds later.

One other was set upon by a nocturnal predator, her cries drew other patrols to aid her. By the time they killed the beast, her throat had already been ripped open.

The last two, though, they had killed each other out of paranoia. Both thought the other was the unknown enemy and they shot each other with as much biotic power as they could muster. The commotion drew a few patrols to investigate and they found their bodies a few paces away from each other, necks snapped.

"Ma'am, the commandos are here."

Officer Baeriph turned her weary eyes the sky where a shuttle was descending. It landed softly, but the eight warriors whom jumped out landed with heavy impact, the strength of their powers showing in the way their bodies moved. Asari Commandos were strong and powerful, feared throughout the galaxy and revered to be as unstoppable as Krogan battlemasters. Not only that, though, these were the personal commandos of Matriarch Benezia, trained and commanded by one of the most respected matriarchs in all of the Asari Republics.

Each was armored from head to toe, save for their leader, an imposing Asari in height and appearance with the jagged scar running up her right cheek along with three more crossing her head crests.

"Officer Baeriph," the lead one spoke and jutted out an offering hand. "Captain Faives."

"Greetings, captain," she spoke, her tone less than formal as the evident-sound of frustration burdened it. "I apologize if I seem less than accommodating, but at this point, I'm more than ready to vacate this rock."

"Have faith, Officer Baeriph," the captain reassured and raised a hand to stop her the Asari officer from making any other remarks. "We are the best of the best, no one can escape us—not even this mysterious native."

With that, she raised an arm and directed its pointed finger into the jungle. Snapping it to the right, she shouted a set of names and four of the Asari started jogging out into the greenery. Moving her finger to the left, she sent the three others in that direction. The six commandos faded from view, but Baeriph eyed them splitting up before they fully disappeared into the forest. Captain Faives, though, remained within the encampment and moved to the alien dwelling with the commanding officer of the camp trailing behind.

"So this is the house you invaded?"

"It's more of a hut, but yes, this is our unknown alien's home."

The Asari commando spent some time using her eyes to rummage through the categorized boxes of unknown tool and devices that were found inside the dwelling. She observed them carefully and critically, most likely seeing if they held any clue to what they were facing. Yet, after minutes of observational studying, Captain Faives seemed to give up and left the hut be.

"So, what do you think this alien looks like?"

"What?"

"What's its appearance? How do you think it looks?"

"How should I know what the damn thing looks like?"

"I'm asking if you can imagine what it looks like," the captain proclaimed and gave an amused smile as the officer scowled. "There's enough evidence and clues to its appearance in what it's done."

"Well, it doesn't have claws, otherwise the survival packs and the jumpsuits would be torn or scratched," Officer Baeriph mused after a while of grumbling. "Then, to take out the Eezo batteries from the jumpsuits, themselves, would require opposable-"

Her next words fell into a cry of surprise as her omni-tool—along with every other one in the entire encampment—activated and emitted a shrill crackling cacophony. In that moment, their voices became drowned out and suppressed beneath the static cry of their omni-tools; none could hear or think as they attempted to cut themselves out of the comm network.

"Wh-what the-"

Before she could ask any questions, Captain Faives began shouting into her own omni-tool. She called out the four names of her commandos, none answered through the heavy static of the communications jamming. A string of curses left the Asari commando and Baeriph's stomach became painfully tight. Comm jamming was usually performed in military maneuvers for a single reason alone: To cover an imminent attack. No matter how technologically inferior their enemy was, the loss of long range communications meant that they were vulnerable to an incursion, and so Baeriph immediately began throwing her voice across the encampment.

Patrols pulled back to a tighter perimeter and troops started lining up behind cover. The shuttles were prepped in case of an evacuation while the researchers on site were moved to hide in the dwelling, the least likely of places to be damaged, unless the aliens cared little for their makeshift hut.

An agonizingly long amount of minutes passed before movement was spotted in the forest. Fortunately, none of Baeriph's troops fired as one of the Asari commandos came meandering out of the jungle. She showed no sign of injury or harm, yet the look on her face was one of alert. Captain Faives greeted her the moment she passed the perimeter boundary, and together, they waited for their five other sisters-in-arms. Eventually, two more showed up together, apparently having run into each other when the comm jamming started. Then, another came with a recently discharged pistol; but the shadow she had shot at was simply a forest creature. A fifth commando appeared not soon after, and a sixth behind her too.

Officer Baeriph waited, and she waited, and after an hour Captain Faives approached her.

"We have a problem, Officer."

"Is it your missing commando or your missing commando?" she snapped and the captain growled before her fingers gripped the lower-ranked Asari's chest-plate.

"To lose a sister is one thing, but to lose her to a primitive enemy? That is an impossibility," Faives seethed past grit teeth.

"Well impossibility is this alien's specialty," Baeriph claimed the moment she was let down from the commando's grasp. "First they make one of our people's corpses disappear, then they attack us inside our camp without anyone noticing, and they also take down a fighter in mid-flight!"

Her hand came up to her face and she bit the inside of her cheek, letting feeling evolve into pain. It drew her away from her thoughts and let her focus, but the maelstrom of frightful emotions and possible outcomes to their current situation was too much.

Finally, then, she got up.

Without a word, she looked around at her troops, her matriarch's commandos, and at the equipment they had set up.

"Pack it all up," she grumbled before looking at the confused faces of her soldiers. "Pack it up! We're leaving!"

People stumbled at her declaration and Captain Faives approached her with a look of fury scrawled on her azure face.

"How. Dare. You. Two of our own are out there and you would abandon them?"

Officer Jinduil Baeriph looked her in the eye with a mixture of solemnness and fear on her face, keeping her chin up as she gulped and responded with a quivering voice, "If the alien has had its way, then she is already dead."

Captain Faives seethed further, but she spoke no other words as her eyes swept over the frightened faces of Baeriph's troops. After a while, she lowered her head and gave a heavy sigh of begrudging defeat.

"How long will it take for you to pack all of this?"

Baeriph looked to the closest soldier whom glanced at her comrades. They quickly calculated their estimations and one came to whisper the number in her ear.

"Fifteen minutes, at least."

"Make it twenty, we'll be scouring the forest."

The commando was off then, her sisters-in-arms following her as they disappeared into the brush and pillars of wood. Seconds ticked by, then minutes, and after nearly five had passed, Baeriph glared at her soldiers. They ran off in haste, gathering equipment and tools, packing up lights and tables and other devices.

"Ma'am?"

The officer looked to her right and down at the young Nymla whom stood stiff beside her.

"Yes, er, Nymla? Yes, what is it, Nymla?"

"What about the alien dwelling?"

She threw a thumb back at the hut sitting within the dozens of research equipment the Asari scientists and researchers had brought down.

Baeriph gave it a long look, wanting nothing more than to burn it and leave the ashen remains as a reminder to the natives that opposing the Asari with such audacity had consequences. However, first contact was a critical step in setting up relations with new species and if another race came across this world with its natives then made peace? Even worse, if they discovered the Asari had found them first and attempted hostile actions? The only way to save face at this point would be to catalog them as to violent, just like the Yahg.

"Pack it up too."

"I, uh- What?"

"You heard me; we have enough room in a shuttle to take the hut, just make room."

Nymla opened her mouth to respond, but at seeing her superior officer narrow her eyes, she pursed her lips and scurried off. Officer Baeriph sighed, her breath heavy with frustration, aggravation, and most of all, humiliation. Defeated by primitives? Unthinkable, but the sparse amounts of technology and strategic intellect they seemed to possess pointed towards far-off theories. Still, this would mar her career; she'd be lucky if she got to keep her position on the _Unbending Will_.

Suddenly, then, as she stopped in her pacing, she glanced at a glint of light on the armor of an Asari commando standing outside a shuttle.

"Back already?" she grumbled and walked towards it. "You! Did Captain Faives send you to check-"

She never got to finish her sentence, just as the many times before when something occurred. This time, it was like the first as an explosion threw her to the ground. A flash of blue and black then grass blades were tickling her temples as ringing filled her ears. Confusion and shock kept her frozen, but then horror forced her face to morph into a terrified countenance. She propped herself up on her elbows and started crawling backwards, away from the simmering fire and the scraps of armor that remained.

"By the Goddess!" Baeriph screamed and a soldier's hand gripped her forearm.

They picked her up as she flailed, but a few rubs from a medic's hand calmed her down as she inhaled deeply multiple times. A small period of rest passed before the Asari officer made up her mind, once and for all.

"G-Get the rest of that onboard, now! We're leaving immediately!"

"What about the commandos-"

"They brought their own shuttle! They can burn down the forest at their own time, but we're getting out of here!" she spat and walked with a wobble to her step towards the nearest shuttle.

Half way there, the medic returned to her side and looped an arm over her shoulder while the other made her own limb do the same on her shoulders. The other soldiers already onboard pulled her in gently and let her sit down in the nearest seat before giving her space. There were no mumbles or murmurs, no gossip amongst them as they stood or sat quietly.

Then, out of the blue, a hand reached out and touched the officer's shoulder. She jerked and grabbed the wrist of the arm, finding Nymla there.

"What!" she screeched and the terrified soldier gulped down her panic to point out the window.

"M-Ma'am, the b-body..."

Her brow furrowed and the superior officer turned to look, seeing the remnants of the armor, smoking residue, and blackened dirt; and that was it. There was no blood, no flesh, no bone, no Asari physiological features left on the ground.

"That's... that's not possible," Officer Baeriph stated with a small voice, her eyes widening by the second. "An explosion like that couldn't- it couldn't- just disintegrate the body!"

She stared for a few seconds more before raising up her omni-tool. Static no longer filled the comm line and so, she sent out her order, "All Asari troops, begin evacuation at once."

With that, the shuttle lifted off and they began ascending to the stars just as the other shuttles did. The process was agonizingly long, however, and every moment that passed was filled with dread that they might suddenly combust into flames or an engine might fail and they would fall to their deaths. However, there was no issue; no problem. They lifted off safely and without fault.

"Ma'am," Nymla's voice sounded again and she opened the eyes she had not realized were closed. "It seems the commando's found their missing sister."

Baeriph turned her gaze down, through the glass viewport of the shuttle, and watched as the six commandos marched to their shuttle, carrying what remained of their eighth member.

"A perfect ending to a perfect mission," she mumbled with weary eyes.

* * *

"Officer Baeriph."

She forced her spine to straighten and chest to fill with air at the sound of that voice. Within her oxygen-filled chest, though, dread festered and grew with each clack of the matriarch's heels on the hangar floor. An eternity passed as she waited, and it almost felt like she was melding with her partner again; save for the lack of pleasure or her partner.

As the seconds slurred by, Baeriph struggled to control her posture. Her body was tired and her mind was exhausted, and the nap she had taken on the way up to the _Unbending Will_ had did little to assuage her of that fatigue. Gravity threatened to pull her chin down as it did for her shoulders. However, years of training and reinforcing that training with every mission she undertook gave her the strength to keep up her appearance; even when Matriarch Benezia came to stand in front of her.

Her eyes locked with the elder Asari, and she resisted the compulsion gulp before the revered matriarch.

"Ma'am," she addressed in a stoic voice rather than the disdained voice that her superior had used.

"I do not believe I gave you permission to evacuate the alien dwelling site."

"N-No, ma'am- but as you said before, I was the commanding officer on site and I did what I deemed was best."

Behind the black helm, her eyes glared through narrow slits and bore into the younger Asari officer's mind. Eventually, though, her raised shoulders lowered as the aggravation written on her features faded away.

What smidgens of hidden fear lay beneath Officer Baeriph's countenance became alleviated by the newfound confusion which came from the change in the matriarch's expression.

"I do believe what you did was for the best," Matriarch Benezia declared as her eyes trailed over to the remaining six of the eight commandos she had sent to reinforce Baeriph's troops. "If would appear our primitive natives were simply masquerades for whatever pirates survived the crashing of their ship. A pity that they managed to outmaneuver us, but this will serve as a reminder to never underestimate our foes."

Her words were harsh, yet gentle; caring, yet cold. The soldiers shifted uncomfortably, but the looks on their faces shifted from shame to determination. There came a moment that swiftly departed where the matriarch looked on with pride at her troops' renewed fervor, but it disappeared as she turned her gaze to a nearby shuttle. Its doors were opened and its occupants stood outside of it, leaving the alien dwelling inside of it viewable without obstruction.

"So that is the alien dwelling you discovered?"

Her inquiry was answered by silence at first, but Officer Baeriph was quick to respond once the question had processed through her tired mind.

"Er, yes, ma'am. I saw it fit to bring the hut here for further study."

The matriarch gave no vocal response, and instead nodded with pursed lips and unblinking eyes that continued to stare at the primitive structure. After several minutes had passed, though, she turned her attention back to the recently returned ground force.

"All of you are to report for debriefing, immediately. Those pirate attacks were far to effective; I want to know exactly what happened down there and how we can avoid such failures in the future."

An audible exhalation sounded from the Asari commandos nearby and Baeriph breathed in deeply to stifle the blossoming amusement in her chest. Their arrogance was set low and this humiliation would surely teach them some form of humility; yet still, to see one of the galaxy's most highly-skilled and trained soldiers fail was disturbing to say the least. Matriarch Benezia was sure to give them a harsh punishment for what happened.

"Officer Baeriph."

The call of her name and rank pulled the Asari from her musings, placing her mind back in her body which stood stiff in the hangar bay of the Matriarch Benezia's frigate.

"Please accompany me back to my office."

Once more, fear clutched the officer's heart as she obeyed diligently. Whenever she glanced at her troops through the corner of her eyes, she saw them giving concerned and pitying looks. Everyone thought that she would receive a reprimand, perhaps even a demotion. At least this would all be private, that was one blessing from the goddess that she had to thank.

The clacking of the matriarch's heels filled her head and the pounding of her heart faintly sounded beyond it as she walked softly with a swift pace behind her superior. The hissing of the hangar doors sliding into place followed in their wake and Baeriph prepared to turn right towards the elevator to the upper decks. However, Matriarch Benezia abruptly turned to the left and strode to the lift of the hangar's control tower.

"Wh-What?" the younger Asari murmured as she faltered in her step.

A quick look from the corner of the black-helm wearing Asari's eye compelled Baeriph to follow, nonetheless.

Within a minute, the two of them were in a room filled with lit terminals and the Asari who worked them. The opposite side of the room was seemingly nonexistent, but as they approached it, the younger Asari began to see her reflection in the glass.

"What are we doing here, ma'am?" she finally asked as her superior took a seat in moved chair positioned in front of the massive window.

"Performing an experiment, officer. Please, take a seat, I believe we'll be here a while."

* * *

The lights in the hangar had been dimmed to nighttime mode and the troops within had vacated the bay. All that remained visible on the unlit floor were the shuttles parked on one side of the hangar and several, larger shuttles sitting on the other end.

Officer Baeriph did her best not to speak; not to ask any questions. She remained silent and Matriarch Benezia appreciated that as she, herself, observed the dark hangar. While not plunged into total blackness, it was hard to make out any details of the prominently perceptible vehicles and equipment that covered the floor. Her eyes traced shapes more than once, but every other second she devoted to watching the shuttles that had returned from the uncharted planet's surface.

Nearly two hours went by before her theory was proven correct.

A shadowy figure climbed out of the shuttle which housed the alien dwelling, nimbly landing on the ground and staying put as it looked around. A few seconds after it had appeared, it began sneaking across the hangar bay, stealthily keeping the darkest areas and using any of the sparse cover that it could find to keep itself unseen. The matriarch, though, never lost track of the figure.

"Wh-What is that? _Who_ is that?"

The elder Asari did not turn to address her officer, but instead spoke as she watched the entity move towards the larger shuttles at the other end of the hangar bay.

"I do believe that is the alien whose world we trespassed upon."

"One alien? _One_?" Officer Baeriph fumed incredulously, obviously finding the fact that a single individual had utterly beaten her troops alone. "Ma'am, that's impossible... and I thought you said it was pirates?"

A smile spread on Benezia's lips and she leaned her head back, all the while keeping her eyes on the figure as it inspected the side of a shuttle.

"A lie, Officer Baeriph; but if you are so concerned about the absolute numbers of our mysterious foe, then let us see if any others will join them."

They waited a few more minutes, and the entirety of the time the matriarch could feel the younger Asari seated next to her hoping for more aliens to appear so that her failure might become less humiliating. Tragically for her, no other shadowy figures appeared and only the lone one whom now began boarding a shuttle remained as the sole source of the ground force's troubles.

"Well, it would seem that they truly were alone," Matriarch Benezia declared and began to rise from her chair. Her arm came up next to her mouth as the orange light of her omni-tool flared into existence. "Alright, commander, move in. Secure our guest, but do not harm if possible."

With that, she swiveled around and strode to the elevator with Officer Baeriph following. In minutes, they had exited the lift and were entering the hangar bay with a platoon of soldiers and a squad of commandos guarding them.

At the base of the shuttle which the alien had attempted to steal was the alien, themselves, as well the commandos whom had captured them; two flanking either side of their unexpected—or in Benezia's case, certainly expected—guest.

However, as she laid her eyes upon the alien, she felt confusion curl around her thoughts. With all the trouble and commotion that the native had caused planet-side, the matriarch assumed that they would put up a fight. She believed that they would sport bruises and leak a small trickle of blood after quarreling with their Asari commando captors. Yet, they seemed perfectly fine.

Then, she noticed the key feature of their appearance: their skin was blue.

The same healthy shade she saw many of the soldiers under her command whom were still in their maiden phases; the same shade Liara sported.

Her brow furrowed and the matriarch pushed the thoughts of her daughter from her mind as she began observing the figure again.

Blue meant they were Asari, and that meant that this was no native of the planet... but they were not Asari. Their shoulders were broad and their face was chiseled with slightly sunken cheeks. Their head and brow wore bluish-black hairs, the majority of it covering their scalp and grew down past their shoulders, some of it draping over it to brush their collar bone.

Then, she saw their eyes.

At first glance, she had thought them ringed red, but as she stared into them, she saw _only_ red. Both eyes were solid scarlet, seemingly glowing as the blue-skinned alien stared back at her... no, they weren't staring, the alien was observing her too.

The moment she realized this was the moment that the alien knew she realized.

Her feet stopped when she stood a few feet away from him, staring straight forward at the alien of equal height. They looked back with a stoic face, devoid of emotions as no muscles twitched or contracted.

Finally, she broke the silence by asking him a simple question, "Can you understand me?"

They stared at her for a moment before they opened their mouth. The lights of the hangar bounced off of the cuffs restraining their arms as they lifted them up, but the action provoked her commandos. Each of the two on either side of them reached for their weapons, but she pulled up a hand in a silent order to stop them. They ceased their hostilities then, and allowed the alien to do what he wished to do.

From his mouth came a masculine voice which spoke in a smooth, silky sound. It was cool, like a breeze and the words it spoke—even if they were foreign and the matriarch could not make sense of them—flowed like a pleasant stream. Then, the alien pointed a finger at their open mouth; more specifically, at their tongue.

Officer Baeriph scrunched her nose and furrowed her brow in disgust, obviously misinterpreting the gesture.

"What is it doing?"

"Speaking without words," Matriarch Benezia elaborated immediately and looked to her for a brief moment to give her a direct answer. "He does not speak our tongue."

She did not wait to see the dawning look of realization on the young officer's face, but instead returned her gaze back to the alien. Her eyes locked with its own again, but she soon started observing it once more. At the same time, she took note of it performing a similar action. It scanned her figure, taking in every detail and noting everything about her appearance. The elder Asari had no doubt that it was not viewing her feminine figure like so many other species would, but instead, it was studying her.

Eventually, after some time had passed, their eyes locked once more and they looked to each other with stoic faces. The alien stared at her and she barely registered the solid red eyes of it darting from feature to feature of her face.

After a few minutes had passed, though, she chose to take another step in the process of understanding each other. With one hand, she pointed at herself and said to it, "Benezia."

Its eyes narrowed for a fleeting moment, but just as soon as the expression had appeared, it vanished. The existence of it, however, brightened the look on Benezia's face, but no reaction came from seeing the smug look she displayed.

One minute went by before the alien opened its mouth again, and from its throat came the same, smooth, masculine voice which pronounced, "Ben-neh-zee-ah."

The corners of the matriarch's mouth lifted higher and she listened to the alien repeat her name.

"Ben-eh-zha."

"Benezia," the matriarch corrected, slowing her speech to help it along.

"Ben-eh-zia... Benezia."

Her amused smile widened into a proud one and she nodded her head as the alien watched her, his—she assumed him a male—eyes never leaving her face. She opened her mouth to speak again, but before she did, the alien lifted his arms once more.

The cuffed limbs drew the alarm of her commandos again, but they hesitated to react physically. A gentle raise of her hand assured them that their chosen course of inaction was appropriate and they relaxed. Meanwhile, the alien awkwardly held up his arms just as he did before and bent them to point a finger at himself like he did minutes earlier.

This time, however, he did not open his mouth and direct his digit at his tongue. Instead, he let it sit with the end of it guiding their gazes to a general view of his face. Then, he opened his mouth and let loose a single, lengthy word: "Mitth'raw'nuruodo."

* * *

 _Journal Entry 881_

 _1248 GS_

 _Our original mission was to track the pirates of the "Vermin Pride", a filthy vessel piloted by members of the Blood Pack. They raided a convey heading for Lusia—apparently under orders from their leader, the Krogan battlemaster named Ganar Wrang—and made off with shipments of food, construction equipment, and weapons; supplies Lusia needs to survive in its still-vulnerable state. I was contacted by Councilor Tevos and ordered to hunt down the pirates, which my crew and I did without question._

 _We intercepted them before they could make a jump through a mass relay to Omega, and forced them to take another route outward to the edges of Terminus Space. Our jamming stopped them from alerting their allies and isolated them, but they were not without their defenses. My ship, the "Unbending Will", and its crew were capable of shrugging off the pirates' desperate moves that were meant to slow us down or throw us off their trail; none of them faltered in their duty._

 _By the time we caught up to them, the "Vermin Pride" had emerged in uncharted space. We were within a system that had only been discovered by a probe—which meant the only charting to have been done was that of the sun and its orbiting worlds._

 _It was here that the pirates made their pathetic, last stand and failed. We damaged one of their engines and one of our fighters destroyed another, but we lost a second fighter to their own attacks._

 _Both the pirate vessel and our destroyed fighter crashed on an uncharted world which leads me to begin explaining the circumstances of "Mitth'raw'nuruodo"._

 _A ground force and salvage team were assembled to go planet-side, and none of us expected to find an unidentified alien dwelling there. It was reported by a surveying fighter pilot, and so, we set to work inspecting it. Of course, we had no idea that the native whom called it home was actually still alive and also nearby._

 _Over the course of the next two days, our ground force—lead by Officer Jinduil Baeriph—came under guerilla attack by an unknown alien. We lost five soldiers, two Asari commando, and a fighter with its pilot to the alien's superb tactics. It seemed his ultimate goal in assaulting our ground force was to draw out my Asari commandos and steal their armor, using the full body armor to conceal his identity and infiltrate the ground force's encampment to board one of the shuttles. After that, he sought to steal one of our ships, but I had managed to conclude that he had followed us onboard my ship and he was soundly captured._

 _However, when we interrogated him, he did not fight or resist. Instead, this alien—whose appearance is that of what I might imagine a masculine humanoid of Asari build might appear as—studied me, he studied us all as we studied him._

 _Attached to this entry is a recorded audio file of my meeting with "Mitth'raw'nuruodo" after our researchers had managed to translate his language from knowledge extracted from what he called a datapad. The process took a few days, but he seemed willing to wait, as was I._

 _Matriarch Benezia, signing off._

* * *

"Can you understand me now?"

She waited, sitting still and silent as the blue-skinned, solid-red eyed alien watched her.

"...Yes."

Matriarch Benezia inhaled sharply and let her mouth curve into a pleased smile at the sound of his elegant, cultured voice speaking the galactic basic jargon.

"Good," she replied and he lifted his chin up by a minuscule increment, "now, let us have formal introductions."

She cleared her throat and lifted hand up to her chest before letting it wave forward gently, the palm of it parallel to her chin.

"I am Matriarch Benezia of the Asari."

His head lowered in a slow nod as he processed the newly attained knowledge and after a few seconds of silence, he lowered his steepled fingers and spoke up, "I am called Mitth'raw'nuruodo."

"Hm... yes, Myth'raw'noorahdo," she spoke, her facial expressions morphing with each syllable she butchered. "I apologize; I will forego mentioning your name for the rest of this conversation."

"If you wish it so," the alien complied and nudged his head forward in acceptance.

The matriarch adjusted her position in the chair she sat in and straightened her back. The fine fabric padding of her personal quarters' chairs offered much comfort, but formality required little comfort and far more alertness. The individual across from her on the opposite end of the table seemed to think in the same manner as he sat with the same posture: Back straight, shoulders up and back, and elbows beneath the edge of the table.

"Now," she began while holding up her arms, hands on top of each other, "I would like to inform you that it was not our intention or goal to trespass onto your world or invade your privacy. Our goal here was to track a ship of pirates; I believe you saw them crash?"

He nodded in acknowledgement and she continued.

"The reason we did investigate your home, though, was because one of our laws—which concerns first contact scenarios—would have us study any unknown species that we may come across so future negotiations might go more... smoothly."

As her voice faded into silence, she watched his face for any expressions that might appear. The stoic mask he wore, however, revealed no shift or morphing in his emotionless countenance. Then, out of the blue, he responded to her claim, "Yes, the K'rell'n traders who first contacted my people spoke of similar laws."

Her brow furrowed and the matriarch mused upon that strange word: K'rell'n.

"I am afraid that I do not know of these _K'rell'n_ traders you speak of."

He did not speak after that, only stared and observed further. She did the same, hoping that the stalemate caused by their simultaneous studying of each other might produce something vocally.

Benezia's plan rewarded her when Mitth'raw'nuruodo raised his head and relaxed his spine to sit comfortably in his chair. Seconds after that, he let his voice fill the room, "What do you wish of me?"

"What is it that you wish of us?" she countered, giving her own inquiry to garner some form of an answer from him before he could do the same to her. "You went through a great deal of trouble to sneak aboard my ship. What was it you hoped to accomplish; or rather, what is it you still wish to accomplish?"

His red-eyed blinked once, but they did not narrow or widen; and his frown did not twitch at all. Mitth'raw'nuruodo remained neutral-faced and gave nothing that would give her an edge over him.

"If you wish to kill me, I would ask it to be done quickly," he suddenly requested and she blinked before widening her own eyes.

"Kill you? No, I will not do that. Although, I do believe my troops would love to tear you apart with their biotics," Benezia chuckled and he raised up his head—that action of moving his head vertically apparently the only action he was willing to fully display. "You ran Officer Baeriph and her troops around in circles, as well as cost them five lives along with two of my commandos."

"It was necessary."

The warmth of humor in her heart and her cheeks dissipated within an instant as a cold curiosity took control of the matriarch. She tilted her head to the right slightly and raised an eyebrow up in a quizzical look.

"Necessary? Why? What did you seek to accomplish?"

"I wished to return home."

So he wasn't native to this world, his ship must have crashed here some time ago.

"Oh, so you've been shipwrecked."

"No," he firmly stated, "exiled."

She breathed in another sharp breath and looked down at him as her back straightened, lifting her torso up higher. His words hung in the air, filling it with tension and manifesting alarm in the matriarch's mind. This alien... he was a criminal.

"Why?"

He raised up his arms again, steepling his blue hands and resting his pressed pointer fingers against the tip of his nose as he closed his eyes. A minute went by before he opened his glowing scarlet orbs once more and spoke with a ruminating tone, "The leaders and I disagreed."

Had Benezia been in her maiden stage still, or even her matron stage, she would have snorted in laughter. However, she was a matriarch, revered and feared by many, and honored as one of the greatest matriarchs in the Asari Republics. Her formal reputation kept her from finding his statement humorous—at least, it kept her from physically showing it.

"Yes, we do have similar issues with our leaders, as well," she sympathized, memories of arguments with other Asari matriarchs and the Citadel Council coming to mind. "...Perhaps we can help each other?"

For a moment, he sat still and unmoving, but steadily, he leaned forward and rested his elbows on the edge of the table. His solid red eyes bore into her own eyes, and she resisted the feeling of intimidation that they conveyed.

"How so?" Mitth'raw'nuruodo inquired curiously and the corners of her mouth curled.

"My people have many starships, as do many other races. I see no reason as to why we cannot help you return to your people."

Sending the alien off, back to his home world would mean his disappearance from the known galaxy, and that would mean the danger he posed would be gone. Of course, it also meant that there was the possibility that they could track him to his home world and recruit them to the Council, and from there, gain a new ally for the Asari.

The masculine, blue-skinned humanoid, though, did not leap in joy at the suggestion, and instead questioned her with a cautious tone that nearly became a threatening one, "In exchange for what?"

"I will explain in a moment, but first, I would like to know how you managed to defeat Officer Baeriph and her ground force along with my Asari commandos; you see, my people are some of the fiercest warriors in the known galaxy."

It was in that moment—after she had declared the Asari as one of the greatest military mights amongst the other races, Citadel-aligned or not—that Mitth'raw'nuruodo finally showed a glowing expression. His mouth curved and he smiled in amusement before remarking, "Not fierce enough."

He moved away from the table and rested his back against the chair once more before he began to elaborate on the tale of his guerilla war against Baeriph and her soldiers:

"It was not hard. Your starfighter crashed near my dwelling and I had time to examine it before your soldiers arrived. The pilot was dead when I dragged her out from the wreckage so I took her body and hid it away."

"And then you filled the jumpsuit with grass," Matriarch Benezia concluded. "You hoped it would fool us into thinking it was primitive lifeforms we were dealing with as well as draw our attention away from the missing omni-tool you stole."

He nodded and continued on, "I saw it flashing on her body and scavenged it; but the grass served more than to distract you. More important to me was that you would find the entire scenario intriguing and take the pilot's uniform back to your camp, along with the grass and fermented pyussh berries."

"Fermented berries?"

Mitth'raw'nuruodo nodded once more and began to explain that part of his plans, "Yes, when fermented and crushed, pyussh berries are a strong lure for small animals."

The Asari matriarch mused on her explanation and wondered how this fit into Officer Baeriph's report. It clicked in her mind moments later.

"You strapped the Element Zero cores to the animals, didn't you?"

He nodded and smiled again.

"That's how you got them in, well past the perimeter patrols."

"Indeed."

"But how did you calculate the deterioration rate of the cores?"

"My people use similar technology that deteriorates once the safety measures are removed. I took little risk and strapped the cores to the animals as soon as they were in range of the berries' scent."

"Hm... well executed."

"Yes, and it is also how I attacked your soldiers. I used a sling to throw more berries at their armor, drawing the animals to them."

Matriarch Benezia nodded in acknowledgement, resisting the anger that welled up within her as she began to imagine the red-eyed alien killing her troops.

"What of the fighter? How did you bring that down?"

"I knew you would attempt another survey of the forest, so I made preparations beforehand. In the two highest trees, I strung up my monofilament line. One of the spacecrafts hit it."

"And being so close to the ground, they could not recover," she mused, but then furrowed her brow as a new question emerged in her head. "But our fighters are not equipped with FTL drives, and recovering a crashed one would do you no good."

"I did not expect the ships to survive. All I wanted was the pilot's equipment, and their communications device."

The matriarch became confused then as she mentally ran over Officer Baeriph and the researchers' reports.

"But you did not take the second pilot's omni-tool. They checked the body, it was still there?"

"No," he argued, "what was there was the first pilot's 'omni-tool'."

Benezia blinked.

Such a simple plan, yet so ingenious.

"So you switched them, and when we discovered that the first one was missing then shut it out of the communications line you still had the second one. Quite ingenious."

Mitth'raw'nuruodo smirked and countered with, "Very simple."

His newly shown amusement was rather irking now, the matriarch had to admit, so when she spoke, it came with a newfound aggravation, "So you killed the pilot for her omni-tool, but why did you continue to kill more soldiers?"

"Your troops wore helmets, but I needed soldiers with fuller armor."

"Fuller armor?"

Her eyes widened at the sudden revelation that came to her. The Asari commandos she had sent down were donned in full body armor, which included masked helmets.

"Ah, you needed to hide your face. That would be the only way you could enter the encampment undetected."

"Yes," he confirmed and continued on with his elaboration. "I ambushed one first and used an explosive on her. She did not have time to react and so I became free to study her armor to find a way to kill the wearer without damaging the armor, itself."

"You killed her with an explosive?" Matriarch Benezia inquired, puzzled as no reports spoke of an explosion during the commandos' hunt. "How come no one heard it?"

"I did it at the same time I jammed your communications. Luckily, it was loud enough to cover the sound of the explosion."

"Ah yes, the comm jamming. I assume you did that with the omni-tool you took?"

A nod was her only answer.

"So, then you killed another commando and took her armor, and then infiltrated the encampment. What then?"

"I went to the shuttle which held my dwelling and stood the armor up outside of it using small branches. Inside of the armor, I hid one of your Element Zero cores."

"So that when someone saw the explosion, they would assume that there was only one commando missing and the other was dead."

This alien, he was ingenious.

"But what about the flight back to my ship, how did you conceal yourself then?"

"The second power generator, it is mostly empty as I have been using it for parts to repair the first one."

So he hid in one of the metal towers, apparently using one that was hollowed out.

"I assume that means you've been here for some time, then?" the Asari asked, but he gave no answer once more.

He was back to studying her again, but as she was close to finding the answers she desired, Benezia did not keep silent.

"I can see why you were so desperate to leave."

"I was not desperate," he suddenly claimed, his face hard, but solid red eyes somehow burning with a kind of determination. "It is necessary that I return to my people."

This alien, exiled and abandoned by his own race still sought to return to them. For what reason would he seek to do so?

With woven fingers, Benezia set her hands beneath her chin and asked, "Why?"

For a time, Mitth'raw'nuruodo remained silent, but soon, he answered her with an ominous statement, "Because they are in danger... There are many dangers in this galaxy."

She pondered on his words, wondering what dangers he meant. If he sought to return to them because they were in danger, then that meant he wished to defend them. However, the matriarch knew what kind of battles he fought, and her soldiers knew first-hand.

"Does that include us?"

"...Yes."

Her eyes narrowed beneath the black helm she wore, and the elder Asari straightened the back she had not realized had slouched.

"How would you help defend them from these dangers?"

A moment of silence passed by then, minutes upon minutes of quiet musing as she awaited his answer and he collected the words for that answer.

Finally, though, he opened his mouth to respond, but the statement he made was not a direct response to her inquiry, "My people... they do not accept the concept of- I do not know the word. An attack on an enemy before he attacks you."

"A pre-emptive strike?" she spoke, suggesting the word to him to which he nodded back in acknowledgement.

Repeating it, he said, "A pre-emptive strike. I, alone, of our warrior-leaders accepted this concept as being within the correct bounds of warfare."

Warrior-leader? So he had been a general, of sorts, a kind of Asari Matriarch or Turian Primarch, maybe even a Krogan Battlemaster. It made sense to her, though, thinking about it now.

"So, you believe that you can convince your people to accept this concept?"

"I do not intend to try," he declared firmly, eyes never leaving her face as he stared from across the table. "I do not need their permission to fight on their behalf."

"And what if none follow you? Will you fight alone?"

"If necessary."

"How noble," Benezia mused and steepled her fingers in the same fashion that he did, "but also very foolish, and quite the waste of potential, as well."

Curiosity appeared on his countenance and he raised an eyebrow.

"You have an alternative to suggest?"

A smile graced the matriarch's lips once more and she straightened her back. Her shoulders pulled up and back, and her chin raised up while she placed her entwined hands on the edge of the table.

"You're still studying me, aren't you? Even now, as our prisoner, with little-to-no chance of escape, you're still watching and observing and studying."

"Of course," he answered simply, not a trace of guilt or hesitation in his voice, "you said it yourself: You are potential dangers."

Her eyes narrowed as she thought back to when she could have said that. Eventually, she took his claim as drawing from when she asked if they were dangers to his people too. This belief of his, however, would be her opportunity.

"Indeed, but what better method is there to neutralizing a potential danger than to do so from within?"

His head bowed slightly and a dark shadow was cast over the blue of his face, leaving only his solid scarlet eyes to glow in the dark veil.

"Your benefit is clear, but what of mine?"

"First, and foremost, you would cease being our prisoner. Secondly, you would be brought before the Citadel Council, the ruling government of civilized space composed of the strongest races in the known galaxy. If they accept you into our ranks, then you would have access to our files and, more than likely, be given the capability to deal with any threats to your people that might exist in known, charted space. Thirdly, and most likely the most favorable to you, you would have the ability to return to your people."

His chest lifted up and his back straightened. Mitth'raw'nuruodo looked to her with wide eyes that closed within a second, but the surprise and wonder that appeared there for but a moment was enough to make Matriarch Benezia smirk. However, that smirk faded as his frown deepened.

"You claim that this 'Citadel Council' of yours _may_ accept me. What if they do not?"

"Then I will take you wherever you wish to go," the Asari offered and the downward curve of his mouth lessened. "Are these terms acceptable?"

His steepled fingers slid across each other before they entwined, making his weapons hold each other. Pressing his extremities to his chin, he let his lips kiss his knuckles while his eyes closed. Their red glow disappeared behind blue eyelids and the faint sound of him drawing a breath in became heard.

Seconds passed, and then minutes. Increments of time stacked upon each other, adding up as the matriarch waited. However, it did not bother her. She was an elder Asari, patience was a virtue she had learned to accept and utilize. With this ability, she was able to sit and stay, listening and watching without becoming anxious or excited. So it was, that Benezia continued to observe her alien guest as he mulled over his choices.

Then, suddenly, his glowing scarlet eyes snapped open and he raised up his head while his hands lowered to the edge of the table.

"The risk is worth taking. I shall go with you to speak with your leaders."

Matriarch Benezia allowed a satisfied smile to curve across her mouth before she responded, "Excellent, let us be off, immediately."

* * *

 **Thus it begins, then:**

 **The rise of a military master; of a mind greater than most, if not all.**

 **So, thanks for reading this.**

 **Like I said at the beginning, I don't own anything besides the idea of the crossover.**

 **Everything else is owned by EA and Bioware (Mass Effect), and Lucasfilms and Timothy Zahn (Star Wars and The Thrawn Trilogy)**

 **Now, would you guys like to see more of this?**

 **The original idea of this entire thing was just to be a one-shot, but I got a plot running in my head and I kinda like it.**

 **So, give me your thoughts.**

 **Favorite and Follow if you wish too, and Review or PM to give your opinions.**

 **Thanks for reading,  
Mithrao - Fanatic of Thrawn**


	2. Intruding on an Empire

**Greetings, everyone.**

 **Welcome back to the story that is being updated over a month after its publication... sorry.**

 **Anyways, it's May 4th!**

 **Therefore, what better day to publish the new chapter?**

 **Alright, so into the notes:**

 **In that author's note that I had up briefly, I talked about how I hadn't planned on writing a full story.**

 **Yeah, so, that's still a thing.**

 **I've got a basic plot down, but nothing super solid.**

 **Also, researching all the details of things in Star Wars and Mass Effect and then comparing how the two are similar, contrast, and are either superior or inferior takes a lot of time.**

 **Oh, and, all those reviews you guys gave me on the first chapter.**

 **Thank you.**

 **Thank you so much, those were such nice and pleasant reviews.**

 **However, I must point out that in the author's note for that chapter I did state that most of it was based off of Timothy Zahn's short story: Mist Encounters (download the pdf online for free and read it, real good stuff)**

 **So, I'm not sure if I deserve all the credit, but you really should be thanking Timothy Zahn more than me.**

 **He's the reason this story even exists.**

 **Anyways, here's the new chapter, hope you enjoy.**

* * *

"This is the system?"

"Yeah, apparently this is where all those weird signals were coming from."

"Contact the sentry group, tell them no one comes in or out of the relay."

"Yes, sir."

Ha'rashau Kardev, infamous pirate, slaver, and captain within the Batarian External Forces narrowed his left two eyes. He stared out through the viewport of his ship, _Khar'shan's Will_ , towards the worlds before them.

Weeks ago, a roaming group of pirates caught a few signals bouncing around the Aquila system. As the pirates were funded by the Batarians, the Hegemony got the news first and they quickly had it cut off from reaching anyone else. Within the next few days, they had patrols sent out to find the source of the signal. Eventually, they caught onto the next few signals that emitted from one of the systems within the cluster.

These were the Terminus Systems, so the signal was possibly that of a pirate group's hideout. However, it never hurt to make sure.

"Captain, we've isolated the signal's origin."

"Take us in slowly, I want this done quietly," he ordered and the helmsman nodded to him before executing the command.

The ship moved slightly with a subtle lurch, little more than a small quiver as the engines purred and flew them towards a green world blanketed with vast blots of grayish-white color.

Kardev watched, and then he straightened. A lieutenant yelled something out, but the Batarian captain waved off the report for he already knew what it was about. He stared with several of the bridge crew at the large, mute gray complex that hung in the orbit of the planet.

It appeared to be a space station of sorts with a massive disk-shaped structure in its center. Many arm like appendages reached out from a large tower atop it, sitting where the arms converged and in between each arm, in the sloped space of gray metal, were large rectangles emitting bright lights. The ends of each metal limb held large, dagger-shaped blades that pointed to the right in a clockwise direction.

Never before had the Batarian captain seen such a sight. It was foreign to him. Alien.

"Sir, we're being hailed."

Kardev's widened eyes narrowed and he shook himself from his awestruck stupor. Rising up, he looked to the deck officer who had relayed the report and then turned his eyes up to the screen that sat on the slanted ceiling before him. The corner of his mouth dropped to form a scowl as he waited, wondering what this was all about.

"Answer it," he ordered and slumped back into his captain's seat, leaning to one side with an arm propped up on an armrest.

The screen above and before him crackled with static as the transmission came through. Seconds passed before the spray of white and black cleared up to reveal an all to familiar creature.

Pink skin.

Hair-topped head.

Two eyes.

And such insolent arrogance.

"Humans," he growled under his breath, keeping his eyes locked with the alien on the screen.

It was a male, he was sure of that. However, he was different from the humans he'd seen. This man wore a gray uniform, unlike the many blue jackets of Systems Alliance officers he'd seen. A silver, cylinder-like object, maybe a syringe or a stylus pen of some kind sat in a pocket, the top of it poking out of a pocket. Next to it was what appeared to be a plate of badges which was pinned to the left side of his chest, and on the plate there were six red squares above six blue ones. Whatever they signified, Kardev could only guess.

Suddenly, the human opened his mouth and the Batarian straightened up slightly, opening his ears to hear the adversary's words. However, what words came out he could make no sense of.

"The hell is he saying?"

He looked to the lieutenant in control of communications and the younger Batarian looked back with a shrug.

"Translator is running perfectly, sir. The human could be speaking one of their other languages."

A figure on Kardev's right stepped up, and the captain looked to his executive officer, Darif as he questioned the theory, "Thought they translated all of them?"

"Apparently, not-"

"Unknown vessel, you are in restricted space."

Kardev snapped his head back to the screen immediately, caught off guard by the strange, accented voice. He watched as the human fiddled with something on his arm; more than likely his omni-tool. Idiot must have forgotten to activate his translator.

"Turn back now or face the consequences."

"Consequences?" Kardev growled and lifted himself up, onto his feet. "You dare speak to me of consequences?"

The human simply narrowed his eyes and met the Batarian's glare with one of his own.

"I do."

The Batarian's eyes widened for the briefest second before he narrowed them.

"Such arrogance," he scolded and started moving towards the screen. "Do you know who I am?"

"No, I do not believe I do," the human spoke and Kardev chuckled, finding humor in the man's ignorance.

"I am Captain Ha'rashau Kardev, infamous pirate and slaver, and _you_ -"

Without warning, the human spoke up and interrupted the Batarian's would-be monologue, "I am Admiral Qhos Tao and you are intruding on restricted space."

The Batarian's yellow-brown face grew darker as blood rushed to it. Anger began to show in his bared teeth and narrowed eyes, yet the human man betrayed no emotion.

"Leave now or we will be forced to remove you."

"Is that a threat?" Kardev challenged.

"A threat implies that I seek violence, which, I do not. No, it is a warning. Leave or we will remove you."

Silence followed the human's command and the crew of the Batarian ship's bridge waited for their captain's answer. They watched and observed, hearts pounding and bodies sweating as the atmosphere grew tenser by the second. Then, however, Kardev pursed his lips and nodded his head slowly.

"Fine, we'll go," he relinquished and fell back into his seat. "But don't think that this'll be the end. I'm taking this to the Hegemony!"

With that, the slaver captain cut an invisible slit across his throat, signaling the communications officer to cut the line. The last image of the human admiral displayed his lips turning into a deeper frown, and then he was gone as the screen went dark. Kardev's eyes turned away from the black screen and he looked to his helmsman, a scowl on his face.

"Helmsman, take us to the planet behind us, on our port side."

"Sir?"

"And tell the others to do the same. We'll slingshot around it and come back with full force."

"Yes, sir!" the helmsman saluted and began changing their heading as other members of the bridge crew began contacting the rest of the ships around them.

Kardev sat back into his chair and dreamt of the fear that the human admiral would feel. He ran a hand over the right side of his face, feeling the jagged scars that cut down through his flesh and two right eyes. A growl left him as he rubbed a necklace around his neck and remembered, and he swore silently to burn this human colony until it was ash.

* * *

It was several hours later when they began to slingshot maneuver. Their ships entered the unidentified world's orbit and traveled along it before coming around on the other side. Once they were in the right angle, the helmsman of each Batarian slaver ship cycled their engines to full power and they shot out from the gravitational grip of the planet. They flew through space, curving an invisible arc before lining up their heading with the apparent human colony.

Excitement buzzed in the air amongst the eager talks of the crew. Soldiers and deck hands alike shared their anticipation, promising each other bottles of ryncol after the battle. Some betted the lives of their future slaves, others discussed what armaments would maximize damage, but keep the humans intact enough for proper use.

Ha'rashau Kardev, however, did not cheer or speak excitedly. He did feel the anticipation that the rest of his crew felt, but he kept his expression of it silent. The only indication of his excitement was shown in the smirk that was ever growing on his face and the occasional chuckle at a fantasy that he'd concoct.

"Captain, ETA is five minutes!" the helmsman shouted and he grinned.

Pushing a button on his omni-tool, he activated the intercom and began to speak, "Alright, boys. You know the drill: Hit them hard, burn everything down, collect as much slaves as possible, and then we're out."

A chorus of cheers arose from around the ship, and Kardev could only smile in pride at his men.

Then, the spiral downward towards tragic failure began.

"Captain! We're getting some strange readings!"

"What?" he asked, looking to the ensign that had shouted.

"That space station, it's... breaking apart."

His brow furrowed, and the Batarian slaver captain looked out the viewport of his ship. The left two eyes of his head observed the floating structure, and he saw no difference in its shape. He frowned and looked to the ensign to reprimand him, but stopped short as he caught a glimpse of movement.

Looking back, he stared in surprise as the dagger-shaped ends of each "arm" of the human space station came loose. They floated out, drifting... no, flying.

They were ships! And there appeared to be five- no, six of them in total.

The captain's reaction was swift and stern, "All hands, to battle stations! Get our kinetic barriers up and guns online!"

A shrill klaxon blared through the alarms and he fell into his captain's seat, eagerly awaiting the fight to come. Unfortunately, that lust for battle and blood was quelled as soon as it reached its climax.

"We'll be in firing range within three minute-"

"Enemy ships opening fire!"

Kardev's eyes widened and he straightened up, his head snapping in the direction of the viewport as he watched emerald green lights flash into existence. He registered their appearance moments before barking an order at his crew, "Brace for impact!"

His hands gripped the armrests of his seat tightly and he prepared for the inevitable rocking of the ship as the enemy attack collided with their kinetic barriers. However, instead of the rocking and shuddering he expected—which his entire crew expected—there was, instead, a violent quake and terrifying burst of fire. Explosions rocked the hull of _Khar'shan's Will_ and the bridge crew cried out in fright and pain.

Those that hadn't held fast were tossed around, falling to the ground or impacting with the wall or consoles. As soon as the barrage was over, though, they pulled themselves up. A few let out the breakfast they had, had earlier in the day while the rest stumbled to the nearest console to help deliver reports.

"What was that? They bypassed our kinetic barriers completely!"

"That's impossible!"

"Kinetic barriers are at 47%! They hit us alright!"

"Upper deck is venting atmo! Calling repair teams!"

Where there had been excitement and joyous exhilaration for the fight to come, there was now frantic and terrified voices shouting to each other. Amongst the chaos, however, Kardev remained paralyzed in his seat. His hands still clutched the armrests tightly, refusing to budge as his eyes continued to stay squeezed shut.

Slowly, however, he opened his eyes to look and when he did, they widened with his mouth dropping to gape in conjunction.

From the viewport of his bridge, he saw the mangled and burning hull of his ship. The ablative armor beneath the first layer of titanium had been completely disintegrated away by the barrage, leaving them without their defense against direct energy weapons.

Speaking of which, only such weaponry could actually bypass kinetic barriers. That meant that the humans had managed to weaponize laser technology... but that was impossible. The only combat system using lasers was the GARDIAN laser system, but that was short-ranged and for defense. The only other species with anything close to what had been fired on them were the Geth, but the humans couldn't have... no, he needed to stop sidetracking.

Kardev shook his head and pulled himself from his stupor. He scanned over the sorry state of his bridge and then darted his eyes to the communications officer nearby.

"Open a line to the others, I want status reports on their conditions!"

Within moments, he learned of the wounded states of the other Batarian slaver ships. Where there had been seven of them, there were now six. Along with that, the remaining six—including _Khar'shan's Will_ —were badly damaged.

The Batarian captain pondered on the news and placed his head in his right hand while rubbing his necklace with his left hand. The right hand's digits ran over his scar, and he growled while holding a scowl.

"Are our men ready?"

"Sir?"

"Are they ready?" he barked once more and various deckhands reported green lights. "Launch all shuttles! They'll have to choose between us or their precious colony!"

The bridge fell silent and Kardev looked between his wide-eyed crew.

"The hell are you waiting for?"

"Kardev."

He looked to his right where his second-in-command stood and glared at Darif.

"What?"

"Captain, we're barely floating right now. We can't take on those ships."

"I never took you for a coward, Darif."

"Kardev, if we go up against these humans we'll be annihilated. If we go now, we can escape and come back with reinforcements. Besides, I'm sure the Hegemony will want to hear about some mysterious human colony at the far end of the Terminus Systems."

The scarred Batarian slaver captain glared at him, breathing heavily before he turned his attention to the viewport.

The dagger-shaped ships had halted in their advance, now waiting for them to make a move. A growl left his throat once more, but he dropped his head and conceded to reason.

"All ships, retreat."

With that, the cluster of Batarian slaver ships began turning, changing their heading to leave the system. The air grew cold and hollow as the crew of the bridge mulled about. They barely spoke, mentioning only reports and logistics while they limped away.

Kardev, himself, dwelled in his hate and loathing while gripping his necklace tightly, angry tears burning along his cheeks. Suddenly though, he was pulled out of his languishing as a deck officer shouted out, "Captain, we're being hailed by the humans!"

He looked up and stared at the dark screen and then to the deck officer. He glared at him and the younger Batarian's posture degraded into a frightened, shriveled version of itself. Eventually, he ceased his hateful look and spoke up in response, "Answer it."

Within a minute, the dark screen brightened into a flurry of static before displaying the face of Admiral Qhos Tao once more.

"What do you want human? We're leaving, alright!"

The human—who had not appeared to change his posture as his chin continued to point up and eyes never failing to look down past his nose then upon Kardev—showed no smugness or joy. He continued to hold the same solemn, stern professional face that he first held when they spoke last. The illuminating light of wherever he stood before a monitor revealed no change in the pale flesh of his face.

Then, out-of-the-blue, the human spoke:

"I do not believe you understood my meaning, captain," Admiral Tao stated with the same humorless and accented voice.

Then, slowly and steadily, the human began to lower his chin and the visor of the cap atop his head, in turn, started to block the light that illuminated his face. A shadow cast itself over his solemn, emotionless face and the Batarian slaver captain felt the smallest smidgen of fear worm its way into his chest.

"When I spoke of forcibly removing you, I did not mean expulsion," the admiral explained with a cold voice, his eyes narrowing in the dark of his cap and voice growing more ominous by the articulation of every syllable. "I meant eradication."

Kardev had only a moment to widen his eyes in horror before the human turned away from the screen to give an order.

"Open fire, ion cannons only, per the Grand Admiral's orders!"

Streaks of whitish-blue light flashed before _Khar'shan's Will's_ viewport as the human warships blasted them. The crew of the Batarian slaving ship watched, and they could only observe as thin, spidery arcs of blue electricity overtook their vessel. They gasped and gaped as their consoles and terminals and nearly anything electronic and connected to the ship was shut down. Monitors and screens flickered before turning dead while the lights died out with sputtering bursts of illumination. Emergency power turned on shortly afterward, but that did not assuage the crew of their fear.

Shaking off his own stupor of shock and fright, Kardev bellowed out, "Status report, now!"

The bridge crew quieted and one deck officer was brave enough to answer his request.

"Captain, kinetic barriers are down and we're running on emergency power."

"What about our communications?"

"We got an emergency signal out to the sentry group before they hit us with those, uh... ion cannons?"

"And our ships here?"

"Looks like they got hit too," Darif remarked while staring out of the viewport.

Kardev grit his teeth, hard. He felt the fear in his chest wriggling about, forcing an uncomfortable feeling of fright to grow as he thought on what was to come.

The disabling of their ship was a clear indication that they planned to board them. However, the human admiral's words haunted him: _I meant eradication_.

Pillars of Strength give him might.

Looking to the nearest deckhand, he gestured at them with a point of his finger.

"You, get down to engineering and tell them to fix the engines as soon as they can. Understood?"

The deckhand nodded and the young Batarian was off, leaving Kardev to bark at the rest of the bridge crew and beyond.

"All hands, prepare for boarding!"

* * *

Half and hour passed before one of the large, dagger-shaped ships enveloped them in their shadow. A few minutes after, they spied several stark white ships with three wings flying out and around. One passed by them and from the noises they heard on the hull, it seemed to be attaching to their airlock.

Kardev, now strapped in armor and wearing his personal tech armor mod, stood with his crew in the hall that lead to the mentioned airlock. Some had the same tech armor mod, a few had simple kinetic barriers and there was one who had dressed a full suit of armor. Most of his men were outfitted with the standard M-8 Avenger assault rifles that the Hegemony supplied them, but he, himself held a M-76 Revenant—a trophy from one of his proudest raids.

They sat behind crates put together into makeshift barriers and around the corners at the end of the hall where it became a T-shaped intersection with another corridor.

"Hold," the Batarian slaver captain ordered as they waited.

He could feel the twitching of his mens' trigger fingers, the slight wiggle of them practically reverberating through the tense atmosphere. Everyone was on edge, fear of Kardev barely overruling their fear of this new foe they faced.

Suddenly then, the muffled sound of boots stomping on steel was heard and they aimed their weapons up at the door. There was a brief moment of silence, then a fizzling noise was heard. The sides of the airlock door burst into sparks and flames as the boarding party cut through the door, searing around the edges of it.

Every Batarian wielding a gun was shaking even harder, leaning against the walls or barriers for support. The only exception to this phenomenon was Kardev, himself, who stood stalwart with a face of cold rage.

"Hold!" he bellowed at his men, shooting glares at any pirate slaver that still quivered after his command.

After forcing them into stillness with his hateful gaze, Kardev turned his attention back to the airlock just as the two burning flames reached the top of the door. He touched his necklace for a brief second before holding his weapon back up and scowling. A silent second passed, and then there was a blast. The door cried out with a groan, and then it exploded in a cloud of smoke and sparks. Shrapnel flew and soon shavings of metal went as the trigger-happy Batarians opened fire.

"Fire!" Kardev shouted over the cacophony of battle, ordering the remnants of obedient men that hadn't started shooting to do so.

The entire hall was lit with the flashes of gun muzzles spewing their munitions. Sometimes there was even a sudden shot of explosive plasma from someone's omni-tool. However, after a few seconds of continuous gunfire, the Batarian's onslaught was reciprocated with a flurry of laser bolts.

The noises of the enemy's guns were foreign to Kardev, but after seeing the streaks of red and hearing the cries of his men as they died with scorch marks on their chests, he knew that they had begun their attack too.

His men got smart after the first three of their comrades fell as they then chose to stick behind cover and shoot when they thought they were safe to. Only two more fell after that, and as the battle's time increased to a minute, the slavers thought they had successfully held their line.

Then they appeared out of the smoke. Humanoid soldiers in stark white armor, marching out of the plume of blackish-gray. Their helmets were large and held the image of scowling faces that glared forward with unwavering, inky black eyes. Tiny blue lights shimmered along the bottom of the helmets and they appeared elsewhere on the armor. The first to come through were protected by large, diamond-like riot shields that appeared to be metal frames with golden glass. Kardev was quick to spy the rippling of the golden glass whenever a shot hit it, and he knew then that it was like a biotic's barrier.

The shield they carried were projecting their own energy shielding from the metal frame, a feat of technology no species had yet to achieve. At least, not a feat that any species had publicly announced.

Inching backwards to the T-intersection, Kardev came to call a retreat as the enemy pushed forward:

"Pull back! Retreat!"

His men started to follow his command, but only a few made it to the perpendicular corridor. Those that didn't had been gunned down, streaks of red searing their backs and killing them. Their bodies littered the ground, but the enemy did not care. They marched over the corpses, stomping on the dead and deceased of Kardev's crew. His fury arose with each dead Batarian they marched over, and so he picked a small disk from his belt before pressing his thumb down on a button.

Tossing it, he spied the grenade fly through the air and explode, sending the shield-bearing soldiers backwards. They tumbled, exposing the rest of their boarding party who immediately began opening fire. The Batarian slaver captain, however, smiled and began to laugh as he pulled his rifle from behind the corner to open fire. His crew followed, not needing an order to kill.

The enemy, though, had taken to using the cover that the Batarian slavers had made. The white of their armor was barely visible until they peeked out to open fire. Kardev readied another grenade and tossed it, but before it could reach the boarding party's position, one of the shield-bearing troops rose up and intercepted it with his shield. The explosive detonated and the soldier was thrown back far, landing at the opposite end of the hall.

Kardev watched, and he felt his remaining eyes widen as the soldier got up, his scowl-imprinted helmet falling off to reveal a human male underneath.

The human man shouted something in a foreign language before he picked up his rifle. He managed to fire off a few lasers before the slaver captain sprayed his gray matter across the floor.

The Batarian slaver captain grinned, but then grimaced a moment afterward as the intensity of the assault increased.

He spied one of the other white armored soldiers picking up the fallen one's shield and using it to block incoming fire with the still-living shieldbearer that had picked themselves up. Now holding out, the white armored soldiers laid down a spray of suppressive fire, but Kardev continued to peak out to observe their actions.

Eventually though, he chose to give up on the entry hall and signaled to his men with hand motions. They began pulling back, laying down explosives and holding onto the detonators as they ran further down to the ends of the corridor.

"Don't blow them until I give the word," he ordered through his omni-tool and a confirmation came through from the soldier on the other side.

Tense seconds passed until a minute had gone by and the entire time, Kardev and his men waited with guns held up.

Suddenly then, a gasp was heard and the captain looked to one of his men. That Batarian was staring out through the viewport on their right and Kardev followed his gaze. His four eyes widened in shock and horror as the remains of the _Shackler_ and a few other ships of the sentry group drifted by them.

"The sentry group?" one of the other Batarians breathed in disbelief.

Then, before anyone could speak further, bolts of red flashed by. Kardev cursed as they fell to the ground and behind stacked crates.

"Now! Blow them now!"

Fire and smoke erupted from the grenades placed down on the sides and floors of the corridors. The white armored soldiers disappeared into the explosion, and Kardev hoped that they had won a victory.

Unfortunately, he found his hopes crushed as a small tube-like object landed at his feet. Realization struck him the moment before he cried out, "Grenade!"

He backed up, twirled around, and then scrambled past his men. He didn't get far before he felt the heat and afterwards, the pain. He hit something, the floor or maybe a wall. There were cries and shouts, some of them were his; he recognized his voice. Of his four eyes, the two that remained after gaining his scar still worked, so he prayed in thanks for that. However, when he sought to move, he could not.

Kardev sought to speak, but his voice would not appear. His arms and legs were motionless, ceasing to follow the commands of his mind. He was prisoner of his own body, and he roared in rage.

Then, he felt the agony.

Like fire running through his blood, burning his body from the inside out.

His remaining two eyes opened and fluttered, letting him see the soot covered ground and white boots stomping about. He grit his teeth and scowled as the boarding party kicked and prodded at the body of his men.

Moving his arm, he reached for the pistol on his belt. Though it pained him to move he still did so, and soon enough he felt the grip of his small firearm. Pulling it free, the Batarian slaver captain expanded the gun and aimed it at the nearest soldier in white armor, a grin almost carving itself into his face.

Then a boot stomped on his arm.

He cried out, feeling the fire rage at the sudden fuel to it. A whimper left his lips against his will, and suddenly he felt hands on his shoulders.

Kardev was picked up and propped against the wall, rifles aimed at his downed form. Slowly, he managed to raise up his head to stare at the scowl-imprinted helmets of the white armored soldiers. Their soulless black eyes glared down at him and he barely made out any further details, his vision blurring the black markings and lit, blue lights. One of them was speaking, their foreign tongue still a mystery to Kardev's ears.

He growled at them, but he could not muster the strength to raise his arms and struggle against them.

One of the white armored soldiers raised up a small device wrapped in black, holding it to the respirator-like bottom of their helmet. They spoke and waited and then spoke again before putting the device away. Then, they lifted up their right arm as radiant orange lights appeared over the limb.

They began applying medi-gel, he could feel the substance on him, mending his body slowly. However, before he could feel relief and strength, another of the soldiers raised the butt of their rifle and slammed it against his head.

* * *

The sound of his boot-clad feet echoed down the corridor of the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer as he walked down into the warship's detention center. The cold air of these desolate halls forced goosebumps to appear on his exposed skin and forced him to rub his nose every so often. What little staff worked on the other side of the ship's built-in brig saluted him when he passed and he nodded back so that they might return to their duties.

Eventually, he came to stand at the end of the hall which lead down to the detention center's entrance. Two stormtroopers stood guard on either side of the threshold, and they straightened up when he was within fifteen feet of them. Their bodies stiffened and their guns rose up so that the barrels of the rifles touched their left shoulders. When he had made his final step to stand before the duo, the stormtrooper on the right lowered his weapon and held out his left hand.

Nodding slightly and reaching up to the left, shirt pocket of his uniform, he produced a code cylinder for the trooper to take and plug into the terminal behind him. A second passed before the small screen in the wall wrote off a name, rank, and authorization in aurebesh.

"Captain Pellaeon," the stormtrooper addressed, their voice masculine and electronic through the helmet. "You are clear to proceed."

"Thank you, trooper," Gilad Pellaeon replied while taking back his code cylinder.

He gave the troopers a quick, polite bow before moving into the detention center. Within, he found more of the stark white stormtroopers standing guard, these ones wielding not just the standard E-11 blaster rifles, but also compact stun batons which hung from their belts. He eyed them for a moment as he took slow steps forward, but then returned to his original pace and began his march further into the detention center.

Along the way, each pair of troopers he passed straightened their back and saluted to which he nodded, giving each pair an approving gesture. Eventually, he reached the end of the corridor and began to process of handing his code cylinder to another stormtrooper for verification again. Seconds later, he stood in a darkened room with several other Imperial officers, these individuals garbed in black and holding the occupation of interrogators.

"Captain Pellaeon!" a young human woman gasped in surprise as she spied him enter through the threshold.

She laid a hand on her chest, breathing a deep breath to calm herself as the others in the room arose from their seats around a small table.

Among them were a human man, a male Salarian, a male Chiss, and a female Chiss.

"Apologies, captain," the Salarian spoke up, waving a hand about as he did so. "We didn't expect you to be here just yet."

He raised up his chin before addressing the statement, "Yes, well the Grand Admiral is requesting results which you have yet to provide."

The five Imperial officers and interrogators shared frightened looks before the Salarian spoke once more, "Of course, but the Batarian is has been rather resilient to our initial probings."

As if on cue, a voice boomed through the audio system of the computer installed into the wall separating the interrogation room from the one they stood in.

"I won't reveal anything to you! The humans took from us! They took from me! I will never give to them, only take!" the batarian bellowed, almost fanatically as if his stubbornness was religious.

"Rather unsavory, yes?" the Salarian next to the captain inquired and Pellaeon nodded.

"Yes, indeed. Unfortunately, we must endure it in hopes that he will eventually grant us the information the Grand Admiral wants."

The Salarian hummed in agreement and nodded his head, but then, the Chiss woman stepped forward to him with an suggestion, "Captain, if I may, we were preparing to send a request for permission to use more... persuasive methods."

The Imperial captain needed no clues or time to understand what she meant and quickly nodded in response, "Yes, that will certainly do. Ensure that he begins talking soon."

With that, Captain Pellaeon turned and left the interrogators to wake an IT-O Interrogation Unit. He walked back down the hall to leave the detention center, performing the same actions he had on his first walk through the corridor: nodding at the soldiers and handing his code cylinder to the stormtroopers posted at the threshold out of the area.

Soon, he was standing in the lift that would take him up to the bridge. However, before his finger could press the button indicating the bridge deck, his eyes looked to the one that once lead to his predecessor's former luxury and entertainment suite. He stood still for a moment, pondering on whether he should deliver his report in person or over the holo. After a second of thought, he chose the former and awaited his arrival at the Grand Admiral's command room.

When the doors opened, he found himself standing in the only source of light in the dark hallway. A slight pang of fear struck him, but he resisted the urge to regret and stepped out into the shadows.

His footfalls were louder here than they were in the detention center's entry corridor, rebounding off of the durasteel surfaces of the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Then, suddenly, his mind registered a cold breath on the back of his neck.

"Captain Pellaeon," mewled a deep, gravelly, cat-like voice.

He jumped and twisted around, eyes wide and heart beating against his chest in a vain attempt to flee. A curse left his lips as he caught sight of the creature that stood with a knife in hand.

"Blast it, Rukh!" Captain Pellaeon cried out, sucking in a sharp breath as he held his chest in attempt to calm his thumping heart. "What do you think you're doing?"

The human man stared at the dark gray-skinned alien as he waited for an answer. Unintentionally though, he darted his gaze between the short, wiry figure's protruding jaw, needle teeth, and visible, steel wire muscles. Pellaeon's mind moved to what his superior employed Rukh and his brethren to do, and he gulped involuntarily.

"I'm doing my job," the Noghri replied shortly and then moved towards the door at the end of the hall.

He stretched out an arm towards it and the captain had only a second to register the Rukh's knife somehow disappear into his sleeve.

"You may enter."

Gilad Pellaeon stayed stationary for a moment before digging a finger into the collar of his uniform. Pulling it to allow the heat beneath to escape, he then began moving past the Noghri assasin to enter the command room.

With an angered growl, he told the Grand Admiral's bodyguard, "Thank you."

With that, he stepped into the dimly lit chamber beyond the threshold and listened to the door shut behind him.

Seconds later, he stepped forward and journeyed further into the dark, using the orange glow of two rotating, holographic rings as a guide. The closer he drew, the more detailed the rings became, and he soon came to identify the distinct borders of the digitally restored artworks which hung in the rings.

When he was within several footsteps from the rings, though, he suddenly felt a pang of doubt strike him. He began to wonder if choosing invading the Grand Admiral's privacy had been a wise decision.

Then, from the chair situated in the center of the rings, there came a quiet voice, cool and cultured, "Come in, Captain."

He gulped and he obeyed, stepping forward into the bright glow of the holograms.

"What do you think?"

A hand, gloved in pure, immaculate white lifted off the armrest of the chair and gestured with an open palm towards the holographic artworks.

Pellaeon took a moment to choose his next words, and after he had found them he gave them, "It's... certainly interesting, sir."

"Indeed," the Grand Admiral replied, seeming to agree. "Has our prisoner provided us with any information yet?"

"No, sir," Captain Pellaeon answered, lowering his head slightly so that the visor of his cap might cover his eyes. "The interrogators are employing more extreme measures as we speak."

No answer came from the Grand Admiral and it took Gilad Pellaeon a moment to realize he had nodded instead of vocalizing a response.

"Has there been any recent news from the home galaxy?"

"Only status reports, sir," he confessed. "With the establishment of the New Republic and the loss of Coruscant, Imperial forces have retreated to the Mid and Outer Rim. Our spies have successfully infiltrated the New Republic's structure while our agents in the Galactic Empire have increased recruitment."

"Very good, Captain," his superior remarked and Pellaeon chose then to look up into the solid scarlet eyes of the Grand Admiral. "What of our colonies? How have our people reacted to the Batarians' failed attack?"

"Publicity of the incident has garnered a feeling of patriotism amongst the colonies, sir."

A smile creased across blue lips and Pellaeon lifted his head up to see it.

"Excellent news, Captain Pellaeon," he surmised and steepled his gloved fingers. "And what of the reports on the Geth?"

"Our probes have tracked Geth forces leaving the Perseus Veil and entering the Attican Traverse. They appear to be searching for something, sir."

The pleased look on the Grand Admiral's face faded as a contemplative expression overtook it.

"Have our scouts continue to monitor the Geth activity, but prepare the _Chimaera_ and _Victorium_ to jump to lightspeed; we will be shadowing the Geth."

* * *

 **Thus, begins the prelude to Mass Effect.**

 **Alright, so thanks for reading guys. I hope you liked this chapter, maybe even loved it.**

 **I really did enjoy writing the scenes with the stormtrooper boarding party and Captain Pellaeon's introduction.**

 **However, my absolute favorite moment was writing Admiral Tao's "I meant eradication" scene.**

 **It was just... pleasant.**

 **Anyways, quick questions for you all:**

 **1.) So, would you like to see what happened between the first chapter and the second? Meaning, would you like to see what occurred during that huge time gap when Matriarch Benezia found Thrawn and now Thrawn being in control of the Empire of the Hand?**

 **2.) How do we feel about OCs? Reason for this question is that there will be a lot of OCs.**

 **3.) How do we feel about canon characters from Star Wars being taken into this story? Like, I really love some of the characters that appeared in other Star Wars media and I also planned on some things that canon characters would fit into. So, would you guys be alright with that?**

 **4.) Lemons... yeah, so, we all know the cornerstone of Mass Effect is sex, right? I mean, I don't know about Thrawn, but I'm definitely having Shepard in the story and if he doesn't get to bang things, well... you know. Of course, I could mention it, but I just want to know what you guys think first. (P.S.- That bumps the story rating up to M-rated)**

 **5.) Do you guys want a set schedule for updating?**

 **Okay, that's all my questions. Please respond to them through the reviews, or if you feel like it's necessary, use a PM.**

 **So, thanks for reading, please favorite and follow if you haven't already.**

 **Leave a review on what you think, and if you didn't like it, please be constructive.**

 **And that leaves us off with a farewell:**

 **May the 4th be with you all,  
Mithrao - Fanatic of Thrawn**


	3. Meeting on Eden Prime

**Greetings, again, readers.**

 **Sorry for the long wait, I had an immense amount of trouble writing up this chapter.**

 **It's been, what? Two months now? I am so sorry.**

 **Getting inspiration to write how these chapters will go is pretty hard for me since I was going to make this a one-shot at first. I've got a bare-bones skeleton plot in the works, though, so I'm starting to get a hold of this.**

 **Anyways, thanks for tuning back in and I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

"Message for you, Captain."

"Thank you, lieutenant. You may return to your duties."

The lieutenant saluted and then marched back off to his station as the Alliance captain turned his attention to the datapad he'd been given. His eyes scanned the block of words and narrowed after the period of each sentence. Then, his eyes locked onto the name signed beneath the messsage: Admiral Hackett.

 _Greetings, Captain Jacobs,_

 _I know this is short notice, but the situation is dire and we need your assistance to make it less so. The Prothean Beacon your colony unearthed is possibly the greatest find in the last several decades. It should go without say that we would prefer the retrieval and transportation process to go off the records until it has been relocated to the Citadel._

 _Currently, our project with the Turians is on its way to the Utopia System to pick up the Beacon, but they will be utilizing their state-of-the-art stealth drive to enter the system undetected. We need you to ensure that your crew—and subsequently the entire cluster—does not go on full alert if they are detected. I doubt that there will be any issues and hope to God that you are not placed in any compromising situations, but if such an event does occur, I know that you will be able to make the hard choices in ensuring the safety of the mission._

 _Sincerely,  
Admiral Hackett._

He gulped and looked up from the datapad to the crew scattered across the bridge deck of the _SSV Cherub._

Captain Artillus Jacobs was the commanding officer of a Systems Alliance cruiser for a reason, but he had never been a part of an operation such as this. Although, he could hardly call his role as an actual role. When the history records spoke of the beacon's retrieval, they'd probably mention him in some side note. Still, though, he was a critical component in keeping the Human-Turian ship from being detected if their stealth drive had a malfunction.

Suddenly, he was pulled from his thoughts as a cry came up from across the bridge, "Sir! I'm getting some strange readings."

For a brief moment, he imagined a possible outcome to this moment, but then shook it off. Stepping towards the ensign who had called out, he moved to stand just behind his seat and look at the terminal before him. A map of the system was shown on the holographic display and he looked to the source of disturbance near the mass relay that lead in and out of the Utopia System.

"I'm sure its nothing, ensign," he assured and moved away. "If any other incidents occur, however, please alert me."

He moved away then and breathed a sigh of relief, not knowing what he had actually done.

* * *

 _Several hours later..._

They were everywhere. She was surrounded. There was no way out.

Her eyes scanned the brush, searching for any single, glowing eyes.

"Dammit," Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams cursed as she crouched lower against the rock she hid behind.

Around the rock she peeked from was the treeline that she had just left behind and behind her currently was the path to the dig site.

Sucking in a breath, she waited several seconds longer before retreating back behind the large boulder, rifle close to her armored chest while closed her eyes and tuned into the sounds of the environment around her. Ashley listened for the cracking of branches or the crumpling of grass, but heard only the wind and the sounds of battle beyond.

After two minutes had passed, she breathed a sigh of relief and grit her teeth.

"Dammit," she cursed once more and rose up from her crouch, sliding up against the stone just enough so that her helmet did not peek over the top of the rock. "How did this... How did those things even get here?"

Just as she finished, the telltale whirring and clicking of her assailants resounded out through the clearing. She straightened and sucked in a sharp breath, clutching the rifle in her hands. Her finger pressed against the trigger, but did not squeeze as she slowly moved to peer around her makeshift cover.

Exiting the brush were three of the single-eyed machines, their "flashlight heads" moving in scanning motions as they searched the area. She quickly pulled herself back behind the large boulder and held up her weapon, prepared to turn out and around with guns blazing. However, just before she moved her foot to make the twirl, a rumble filled the air and she turned her eyes up to watch a shuttle-like ship descend through the skies, heading nearby towards one of the outlying research camps.

Its design was far stranger than any ship she'd ever seen. Most were sleek and curved with an emphasis on smooth, seamless hulls. The mysterious ship, however, was bulkier even if it was small and its hull appeared to be a patchwork of metal with many protrusions studding its hull. Two wings extended from its side and a top, dorsal wing shot straight up.

As soon as it appeared, though, it disappeared over the treeline and the robots—who had also watched—clicked to one another before disappearing back into the brush.

Gunnery Chief Williams breathed another sigh of relief, but then thought of the ship and potential reinforcements onboard.

Raising up her arm, she activated her omni-tool and called into its communications function, "This is Gunnery Chief Williams to any nearby squads, can you hear me? I repeat, this is Gunnery Chief Williams, is anyone out there?"

No answer came for the first few seconds, and none came after the first minute. Finally relenting and closing the channel after two more minutes had gone by, Ashley raised up her chin and looked to the sky briefly before whispering a silent prayer. Then, she was off, heading towards that mysterious ship in hopes of finding anyone or anything that could help her.

Crouching low, she hid her bright white and pink colored form in the shadow of the large trees and swiftly moved to hide behind the massive trunks of those giant flora. She had a few close calls with the humanoid robots when the hovering drones they brought patrolled the forest. She managed to evade them twice, but prayed that she wouldn't have to keep hiding from them a third time.

Eventually, her efforts brought her to the research encampment where the mysterious shuttle should have landed, yet... it wasn't there.

The buildings planted in the clearing stood abandoned, their sides singed from the plasma shots of the robots' weapons and their interiors left abandoned without any bodies in sight.

"What the-"

Before she could finish her confused remark, however, a shot of blue flew past her and she immediately fell into a roll. Landing into a crouch, she looked back as several of the single-eyed machines marched out from the forest, rifles held up as their eyes locked onto her.

"Dammit!" she cursed loudly while running to the nearest form of cover—that being a pile of crates.

Her makeshift cover would not last long with the haze of plasma shots that scorched the stacked boxes. However, she only needed it for the moment as her free hand clasped the disk on her belt.

Pulling the grenade free, she primed it and quickly tossed it out towards the robots. She counted down the seconds it took for it to reach the machines before tapping her omni-tool. An explosion rang out and a smirk crossed her lips as a sense of pleasure and pride filled her.

That joy, however, was gone as soon as it appeared due to the sudden appearance of another squad of the killer machines rounding a building next to her.

Gunnery Chief Williams barely avoided the shots of plasma they discharged, and she barely avoided the next one. The third attack they made, however, caught her in the arm, and she stumbled from the impact.

While her shields took the damage, the force sent her into a brief stumble in her sprint. Her foot found itself atop a loose pebble and suddenly she was tumbling forward, falling to the ground.

Quickly rising back up from the fall, she pulled her rifle to train it on the nearest cyclopean robot, prepared to take down at least one before she died.

Yet, before the machines could open fire, the whistling of an object flying through the air cut through the tense silence. Ashley's eyes focused on the tube-like object that bounced on the dirt until it tapped the metal, three-toed foot of one of the machines, and then she scrambled onto her feet.

The second that she began turning to run, the grenade erupted into a dome of bright, orange light that turned clear in the split-second after. Then, a blast of fire erupted from the center and broke through the dome, releasing the sound and heat of an explosion which sent her flying.

The white and pink armored Human woman flew through the air just before landing at the edge of the clearing, luckily at the entrance to the path down into the dig site.

Groaning and coughing, she rose up on shaky limbs, hoping to be able to move as far away from any of the surviving killer robots as soon as possible. Her hopes were drowned, though, as a few lights shined through the smoke. The singular eyes of the machines locked onto her once more and she stared back with wide, alarmed eyes seconds before bolts of red flew through the air.

The mechanical invaders fell with scorched chests and bursts of sparks, eliciting whirring screeches all the while. Within a moment, the remaining machines fell to the ground, motionless, and Ashley Williams stared at her dead assailants with shock. Her mind attempted to register what she had just seen: a flurry of red streaks killing the Geth squad. When she finally came to terms with the image, her attention went to where the red streaks had come from, and she came to look to her saviors with an expression of both awe and fear.

Five humanoid beings stood before her, all wearing strange, pitch black armor with narrow helmets which had visors outlining the front of the helmet. Beneath the brim of the helmet was another visor, this one being the usual, glass window that people used to see out of their helmets. Strangely, it was designed as if it were two glaring eyes being connected by a "bridge", making it a visor. Just beneath the glass visor was a kind of respirator—or, at least she thought it was one—which was situated in a long, thin "snout-like" mouth. Each of the strange troopers held up their rifles—small and strange weapons she'd never seen before—and each had their weapons pointed directly at her.

"Arms up where we can see them!" the soldier at the head of the group shouted with a masculine tone. He pressed his gun forward, compelling the woman to obey as her upper limbs rose into the air quickly.

Her eyes were wide, still in awe and fear, but anger was beginning to swell under the panic she felt.

"Wait! I'm Systems Alliance!" she shouted, searching their armored bodies for the insignia of Humanity's primary military force.

She did not find it and then chose to remain quiet as the leader of the squad raised up their left arm to pressed against the side of their helmet.

"Squad 8 to Command, we've found a survivor; Human female, Systems Alliance soldier. Requesting orders."

A few seconds passed by as the leader communicated with "Command", and during that time, Ashley took the opportunity to observe the five soldiers. While they wore the same type of pitch black armor, each was customized with a number of differing equipment.

The apparent leader of the squad wore his dark green shoulder guard and bore a large backpack on his back, evident by its square shape peaking over his shoulders and a small antenna sticking up on its right side. A holster sat on his right hip—occupied by a small pistol—and a belt of packets and pouches was strapped around his waist.

On his right was a soldier bearing what appeared to be a jetpack and a compact rifle next to it. He wore a short, dark gray cloth which resembled a small poncho. It covered the upper half of his armor, but stopped above his jetpack's thrusters. Either it was for keeping him dry during a rainstorm or helped conceal him when he hid. Although, it seemed to be useless for the latter function if his armor was already pitch black in color.

The second soldier on the leader's right was a soldier wearing a much larger pack on their back with a long, tube-like object slung over his right shoulder. Ashley could guess what that weapon was, and if she was right, then her guess on what was in their pack was probably correct too; her guess being a wealth of explosive ordinance.

On the leading soldier's left were two more soldiers, however, the first of the two's helmet was different the rest. Two bulges jutted from the forehead and ran to the back of the helmet before seemingly curving back to the front of the helmet and coming to connect with the helmet's respirator. They wore the same pack as the leading soldier, but their rifle was different, far heftier with what appeared to be modifications and attachments.

The last of the five soldiers appeared to be thinner, and instead of more weaponry, they carried a larger belt of supplies with a number of different pouches.

"Confirmed," he said and raised up his rifle again.

Her eyes went wider, but narrowed a split-second after. Her forward, right foot twisted towards the right and she moved in that direction. Her momentum pushed her towards the squad of five's flank which she hoped to maneuver around.

Unfortunately, the squad leader tracked her faster than she thought he would and in an instant, fired off a ring of blue light.

It struck her and she felt her body go limp within a second. When her form hit the ground, there was no pain, only a dull sensation of pressure as the ground met her armored body. A groan escaped her lips when she meant to speak defiant curses; and as her vision went dark, she prayed internally that she'd make it out of this to see her family again.

* * *

When Ashley awoke again, she found herself propped up against a large stone instead of lying on the grass. The smell of smoke still lingered in the air, as did the numbness of being knocked out by... whatever it was those weird soldiers had did.

"She okay?"

"Yeah... I think so."

"Mm..." she mumbled, trying to speak yet producing only a weak sound.

Shadowed figures wavered in her blurry vision as she blinked repeatedly. The silhouettes slowly colored themselves into two figures, both men and both wearing Alliance-marked armor. A smile nearly crossed her lips before it became a frown with the memory of her assailants crossed her mind. Gritting her teeth and baring them, she tried to push herself up, only to fall back against the stone with a groan.

"Whoa, hold on there, ma'am," the Alliane soldier who crouched spoke and he reached up an arm marked with a red and white stripe.

Red and white stripe... that meant he was... N7.

"N... 7?"

He paused for a second before nodding slowly.

"Yeah, I'm N7," he said and laid his hand gently on her shoulder. "My name is Commander John Shepard, and he's Kaidan Alenko."

He threw a thumb behind him upon mentioning the other man.

"We're here to help. What's your name and rank, soldier?"

She narrowed her eyes and looked him over for a brief second, taking in his appearance.

A mostly shaved head, colored by a cover of dark brown stubble. A hardened face with a stern expression. Green eyes, staring into her brown ones. After a moment of contemplating, she took his serious face and accepted it as proof of his loyalty to the Systems Alliance.

Slowly rising up while sliding against the stone for support, she listed off her rank and name, "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Systems Alliance."

Following her up until both of them stood on their feet, Shepard gave a curt smile and nodded at her.

"Good to meet you, Gunnery Chief Williams."

He extended a hand and she took it after a moment, shaking it. Behind Shepard, Alenko nodded his head at her and she sent a nod back in response.

"Anything you could tell us about what happened here?" the Commander suddenly asked and she looked to him before following his gaze to the large blot of burnt grass and dirt.

Surrounding that mar on the grassy ground were the bodies of the machines that had hunted her down. Their eyes were dark with not even a single speck of light indicating that a single machine had survived. Their chests bore holes seared into them by whatever projectiles that those strange soldiers had shot at them. She stared into what exposed machinery and circuitry was shown through the open wounds and she thought of the stories that spoke of the machine race beyond the Perseus Veil.

"Those _things_ , they were hunting me and... Sir, I think they were Geth."

"Geth?" Alenko scoffed from behind the N7. "That's impossible, the Geth haven't left the Perseus Veil in over three hundred years."

"Yeah? Well those killer machines mowed down my men and hunted me like a dog. I'd say that either they're Geth or someone made one hell of an advanced robot army."

"Hm, well they must've got hit pretty hard if they're all dead and you're still alive," Commander Shepard remarked with crossed arms and a suspicious countenance.

Ashley looked to the dead Geth and vivid memories of her meeting with the unknown, black armored soldiers resurfaced in her mind.

"They were chasing me and... I ran into some soldiers."

Shepard tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at that.

"Alliance? Or..."

"No, not Alliance," she affirmed. "They wore... uh, black armor. Really _weird_ , black armor."

Shepard's eyes narrowed, and he stared her down for a few seconds before questioning, "Weird, black armor?"

"Yeah, but they were humans, I think."

The Commander looked behind him to the other man, Kaidan, who shrugged his shoulders and then turned his attention back to the gunnery chief.

"So, what? You ran into them and they saved you, and then left you for dead?"

"Well, er- Yes, but- Okay, so the Geth were hunting me down and I was heading to the dig site to meet up with the squad stationed there when I got ambushed by those killer robots. I tried making a run for it, but they pinned me down. Then... there was a grenade, or just something like a grenade; made one hell of an explosion. I got sent flying and a couple of Geth survived, but when they tried coming after me, those black armored soldiers showed up."

She glanced at the spot where the five soldiers had stood, swearing that she could still see faint images of them.

"They gunned down the Geth, then... I don't know. I think they knocked me out with some kind of energy blast."

The gunnery chief knew that her explanation was ludicrous at best, career ruining at worst, but she hoped to God that they would believe her. Furthermore, she hoped that they didn't recognize her last name and immediately discredit her because of that. As a minute passed by, though, the Commander's face shifted from suspicious to grim and he shook his head with a frustrated face.

"Alright, we'll radio this to Nihlus," he said and looked to Alenko who nodded before activating his omni-tool to make the call. "Williams? You fit for duty?"

She stared at him for a moment before the question registered in her head, and then she cracked a smirk before shooting back, "Hell yes, sir. It's payback time."

Her smirk was reciprocated by a smile from Shepard before he reached down to grab a rifle—her rifle—off the ground. Handing it back to her, he nodded and turned towards the path.

"We'll fill you in on the mission," he spoke before starting down with his own weapon held up, "but our primary objective is the Prothean beacon that was dug up."

* * *

By the time the replenished team of three made it to the dig site, the Prothean beacon was gone. Their first assumptions was that it was stolen, but as they made their way further into the colony, they happened upon two scientists—or rather, a scientist and her insane assistant. Thanks to them, however, the Commander and his companions discovered the location of the beacon.

Apparently, it had been moved prior to the attack, taken to the space port to be transported off world once the _SSV Normandy_ arrived. Tragically, on their way there, they found Nihlus. He had been killed, shot dead by another Turian named Saren, as told to them by a man hiding at the tram station.

When they arrived at the space port, however, they found the entire port littered with Geth. That was to say, that it was covered in both functioning and dead Geth. Those that were destroyed had similar wounds to those that had attacked Gunnery Chief Williams, and those that were still standing seemed to be on the lookout for other assailants before the trio of Alliance soldiers arrived.

Although, upon the entrance of the Humans, the Geth turned their flashlight heads straight towards them. That was why they were currently pinned behind a wall with Shepard taking the front and Ashley sitting behind a stack of crates. Kaidan, however, stood just behind Shepard while he tried to calculate where a biotic attack would do the most damage to the Geth positioned down the walkway.

"Kaidan!"

"I'm on it, Shepard!" the other man shouted in annoyance before he quickly twirled around the corner and sent a ball of bluish white energy flying towards the last killer robot standing

The blast of biotic energy sent the remaining Geth soldier flying up into the air where it was filled with holes, courtesy of Shepard and Ashley's aim and their rifles.

As it fell to the ground sparking and leaking silvery fluid, the trio of Alliance soldiers stepped out of cover to approach. They moved cautiously, eyes darting between whatever could be considered cover up ahead. They scanned the area quickly and efficiently, searching for any remaining forms of resistance. When they became satisfied, the two man and one woman group moved up towards their prize.

"This is amazing!" Kaidan remarked loudly, a grin on his face as they stepped towards the tall, thin tower of metal and seething green energy.

It was far smaller than any of the Humans could have imagined, but it did not lack in awe. The ancient relic of the Protheans glowed with a harshness to it, burning bright with emerald energy that shined through small lights dotting an interior-like skin beneath dark gray metal covering.

"Actual working Prothean technology; unbelievable!"

In contrast to his enthusiasm, Gunnery Chief Williams was far from enjoying the sight. In fact, the emerald glow of the relic disturbed her and she frowned visibly.

"It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up. Something must've activated it."

As the gunnery chief stared at it for seconds longer, Shepard finished up calling the Normandy down for pickup. Just as he ended the call, a flash of light tore his attention towards the female soldier he and Alenko had picked up. The white and pinked armored Williams was being pulled towards the beacon as she tried to step backwards. An invisible force though, was dragging her forward, seemingly looping ropes around her to draw her towards the Prothean beacon.

With quick reflexes, he was leaping forward and sprinting towards her. His arms wrapped around the soldier's waist and the Commander twisted around before letting go, throwing Ashley into Kaidan's arms. She lay stunned in the other man's grasp as Shepard attempted to move back towards them. Yet, something began dragging him in Ashley's stead.

It was not so much a physical pull as it was also something jerking... _something_ deep inside of him. He felt it grasp whatever was in the pit of his chest; his soul, his spirit, his- whatever! In any case, he was being pulled forward by that invisible force, and then he was being suspended in the air.

The beacon flashed once more and his eyes snapped open as wide as they possibly could.

He could faintly hear Kaidan shout his name, but his voice was small in comparison to the voices screaming in his mind.

Flashes of vivid images seared themselves to his brain:

Visions of burnt worlds and razed cities; of smoldering battlefields and blood-flooded streets.

He saw forests of metals spikes, like those that were scattered throughout the Eden Prime dig site. Yet these were empty and dried with blood, beneath them marched silhouetted figures of grotesque shape.

He watched flesh being ripped and torn; the bodies of aliens—dried and bloodless—being taken apart and reassembled.

Voices spoke words and screamed horrifying sounds, giving off the last tales of a dying civilization. Their whispers haunted him throughout the entire experience as he watched ancient monsters of metal and fire rain from the sky.

He saw it all, and that was the terrible part.

It came to him at once, in one single burst that jumbled and meshed itself together. The images were in disorder, like a chaotic line that had transpired into a churning crowd of information that had no real order to it.

Then, it ended.

Commander Shepard fell to the ground, no sound leaving him as he lay there. The Prothean beacon before him crackled once and then exploded, bursting into shrapnel and electricity before becoming a broken metal shard that spat sparks.

Both Kaidan and Ashley ran to the Commander's side, the former grabbing him by his shoulders and shouting his name angrily. The latter stood on weak legs before falling onto her knees, horrified at what had happened and how she had caused it to happen.

They sat there like that for a time, waiting for him to wake up and waiting for the Normandy to arrive so it might deliver them from this nightmare.

* * *

"This is Lieutenant Stroy of Storm Commando Squad 8, reporting."

Lieutenant Calphus Stroy stood with his right hand holding up his pair of macrobinoculars and his left hand holding up his communicator up to the bottom of his helmet.

"I read you, lieutenant. Report."

"Sir, the Human soldiers made it to the Prothean beacon. The leader made contact and has been knocked out; and the Prothean beacon was destroyed as a result."

He dropped his macrobinoculars, no longer needing them to take in the sight of the Human man and Human woman desperately trying to tend to their unconscious squad leader.

"Anything else to report?"

"Nothing, sir."

"What of the status of the Geth?"

"All remaining Geth forces appeared to have converged on the space port. Private Ferro took out a few, but we let the Alliance squad mop up when they arrived."

He turned towards his squad to look at the Storm Commando's resident sniper, TK-848—affectionately named and known as "Spyglass" among his fellow soldiers, even though he was Private Ferro to the higher ups.

"Very good, lieutenant. Prepare your squad for evac; we will be sending a stealth shuttle to these coordinates."

Looking down to his right arm, the Storm Commando watched his omni-tool brighten into life as it received the designated evac zone coordinates from the _Chimaera_.

Within a second of receiving the data, the Storm Commando lieutenant gave one last farewell to his superior, "Understood, sir."

With that, the line went dead and Grand Admiral Thrawn leaned back into his chair.

The events at Eden Prime had been the culmination of the Geth's recent activities beyond the Perseus Veil. That much he knew from what his many sources and spies had discovered. Whether it was a stealthed satellite hidden away at the edge of a star system, listening to the communications of passing ships or the spies stationed in key locations in the Milky Way galaxy's many governments or even the many scouts deployed across the stars, the Grand Admiral had attained all the knowledge he needed to arrive in the Eden Prime system ahead of the Geth assault fleet.

He was surprised, however, when the Alliance ships defending the colony did not send anyone to investigate their arrival. Usually, the presence of their ships in hyperspace prior to entering star systems prompted the security elements of those systems to search for the anomalies that had sped through space without the aid of a mass relay. Although, while the lack of response was strange, it was not unwelcome. The initial plan had been for any investigating party to be quickly dealt with and any retaliatory force be left to the mercy of the Geth once they arrived. With their ships going undetected, the Imperials were able to remain completely hidden until the Geth had captured the paradise planet.

The show that had played out then had been both educational and a reminder to the crew of the _Chimaera_ and its escort star destroyers that their empire was not yet secure.

These Geth had brazenly attacked a colony world, one that was highly coveted by the Human's Systems Alliance.

Such a brash action required a proper reward, and the Prothean beacon which had been excavated on the colony was most certainly a reward.

However, why the Geth were concerned with ancient Prothean relics was another matter entirely; one that he had thoroughly investigated over the years.

It began with his time before his rise in the Galactic Empire, when he was still in service to Matriarch Benezia and her Citadel Council.

A simple look at the art of the Asari lead to a theory on the true nature of their goddess, Athame. His curiosity lead him to learn more of the Protheans, and in turn, their extinction. An empire might fall, but its ruins would still stand the test of time; unless they too were torn down in a campaign to eradicate all traces of that empire.

So it was, that he searched and pilfered through the looted arts of dead civilizations, piecing together a lost history.

Although, without any real account of his theorized timeline, there was no evidence to verify his claims.

That was until the attack on Eden Prime and the contact between the Human and the Prothean beacon.

Whereas Saren Arterius was more than likely untrustworthy, this "Commander Shepard" would be an excellent ally to persuade and mold into an ally.

Speaking of which, the Chiss man tapped the built-in controls on his seat's armrest and looked to the massive, holographic panel that hung before him.

The multiple windows showcasing the armor cameras of Storm Commando Squad 8 minimized as a new window opened. This one pulled up a compiled record of Commander John Shepard, pieced together by the intelligence agents aboard the _Chimaera_.

Solid scarlet eyes scanned over the lines of text, mentally reading the knowledge that had been gather for him.

"Survivor of Mindoir," he mumbled, taking in the report of the brutal attack on the Human colony by Batarian slavers.

The memory of the attempted attack on one of the Empire's colonies weeks before entered his mind briefly. He still had to send the slaver Kardev off to a proper detention center.

He continued on with his reading after that brief bout of musing, taking in the knowledge of the Commander's upbringing after his traumatic childhood. Apparently, his entire family had died, save for his mother, an Alliance officer who had been off-world on a tour. After the incident, he was taken with her and raised amongst the Systems Alliance, garnering a kind of patriotism and want to become like his mother.

Then, his career took him to the planet Elysium.

"Savior of Elysium. Hero of the Skyllian Blitz," the Grand Admiral read off with a small smile.

Such romantic titles for individuals that contrasted so much with those of the old Empire's renowned heroes.

He continued on reading after that, taking in the Human man's N7 training and mentorship under Captain David Anderson, an esteemed officer in the Systems Alliance. Further into the report, he learned of his placement on the _SSV Normandy_ as a part of Captain Anderson's crew and their mission to come to Eden Prime.

With his reading over, the Grand Admiral steepled his fingers and stared a the touching pads of his fingers. He focused his mind and thought on the knowledge that he now held, calculating the pros and cons of every scenario that would occur with each plan. He took into account the possible reactions and emotions that might create complications or failures.

With the Geth gone and their gargantuan dreadnought leading their retreat, it was likely that they would disappear back into obscurity. However, with Saren apparently in league with them, it would be simple to leak that knowledge and force the Council to send their Spectres after the ruthless Turian soldier. If his plans went accordingly, then the Geth should be forced out into open conflict.

But then there was the issue of Commander Shepard.

He had a background, a record of heroism; and his contact with the Prothean beacon would likely lead him to join in the hunt for Saren.

"Hm..." he sounded as he looked up at the holographic screen before him.

Moving his right hand over the controls on his armrest, he pulled up the armor cameras of Squad 8 once more and brought the time back to just when they were observing Shepard and his squad at the tram station.

The members of Storm Commando Squad 8 were huddled together in a nearby treeline with Lieutenant Stroy observing the trio talking to a man that had hidden himself during the attack. A probe droid nestled near the Humans of the Systems Alliance allowed the squad of elite troopers to listen to their conversation.

Thrawn watched the recording, and he listened intently as the voices of the Milky Way Humans crackled through the audio feed:

"I need to know how Nihlus died."

"The other one got here first. He was waiting when your friend showed up. He called him Saren," the station worker confessed quickly. "I think they knew each other."

So the Commander knew as well.

If he reported to his superiors, which was more than likely to occur, then the Empire of the Hand would not need to involve themselves at all... still, the Geth had wanted to take the Prothean beacon; and if Squad 8's reports had been accurate, than Saren's tactics implied that he had been leading the attack, himself. That would mean that, in turn, Saren was after the beacon, but for what reason, Thrawn did not know; and not knowing was a danger.

Hopefully, the dear Commander Shepard could enlighten him.

Activating a comm line to the bridge, Grand Admiral Thrawn waited for the captain on the other end to pick up before speaking, "Captain Pellaeon."

After a second of silence, the captain's voice came through:

"Grand Admiral, sir."

"Captain, have our agents on the Citadel prepare to cover a Council session. I want to know everything about what goes on there."

"Understood, Grand Admiral," the captain of the _Chimaera_ acknowledged, but after a moment of thought he spoke up again, "Shall I prepare for the jump to lightspeed?"

"Make it so, captain," Grand Admiral Thrawn approved and cut the line before pressing a button on his armrest's controls.

The holographic screen faded away and in its place came rings of holographic art that descended from above, surrounding him with the culture, religions, beliefs, ideas, memories, and mental processes of species and races that were either long deceased or still living.

* * *

 **And that concludes Chapter 3 of The Art of War.**

 **I hope you enjoyed reading all of that, I had a pretty fun time composing the chapter.**

 **Like I mentioned in the earlier Author's Note, I had quite a bit of trouble writing this all out at first.**

 **That was due to the fact that my original idea involved Thrawn and his star destroyers just watching the whole thing unfold on Eden Prime.**

 **When I did that, it was just boring writing about Shepard going through the prologue mission, but then E3 happened and I watched the Star Wars Battlefront 2 trailer from EA. (Super hyped for it too, btw)**

 **So, I created Storm Commando Squad 8 to appear on Eden Prime, which let me introduce Shepard's crew (or future crew) to the Imperial side of the story.**

 **If you don't know what Storm Commando's are, they're basically elite Stormtroopers with black colored scout trooper armor and they're used for covert, special operations missions and things like that. That made them perfect for their role in this chapter.  
**

 **Anyways, things are going to get ramped up with the activities on the Citadel.**

 **We'll get to see how Thrawn's network stretches across the galaxy.**

 **Also, question: Did you guys want me to write about Therum, Noveria, and Feros? Or did you want me to timelapse that?**

 **Please leave a review and follow and favorite if you like what you've read.**

 **Mithrao - Fanatic of Thrawn, signing off.**


	4. Sorry

**Hello there.**

 **Hi, so this isn't a chapter, sorry.**

 **I'll just cut to the chase.**

 **Story's cancelled.**

 **Sorry, but, well... I can't really write this.**

 **I mean, like I previously stated before, the first chapter was just a one-shot based off the original short story of Thrawn.**

 **When I made up some extra scenarios for the rest of the story, I figured that maybe I could write up a plot.**

 **And I kinda did, but I couldn't nail down the characters right.**

 **Along with that, I couldn't find an in between for Canon Thrawn and Legends Thrawn, and with that, Star Wars vs Mass Effect.**

 **I'm really sorry guys.**

 **I know I should have informed you sooner, but I was stuck in a funk of whether or not I should keep trying.**

 **Anyways, though, I've got some notes and things I wanted to share if anyone wanted to take up the concept and idea I had going:  
-Original plot idea was for Thrawn to show up in ME galaxy, go back to Star Wars galaxy, and then come back to establish a New Empire  
+Main issue with this is that I would have created a subplot that would've gotten real boring and annoying real fast. I didn't think you guys would want to spend 3-5 chapters of Thrawn and the Council trying to explain how they found him and worked with him and what not.  
-Another big issue of mine was trying to mix in current events in the Star Wars galaxy with ME's current events  
+i.e. having Thrawn colonize the Milky Way galaxy while stealing from Imperial warlords  
**

 **So, I don't really know where this can lead off to.**

 **I appreciate your guys support and adoration for the fanfic.**

 **Once again, sorry about this.**

 **Sincerely,  
Apex Primus (I rebranded from Mithrao - Fanatic of Thrawn)**


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